okay all right good evening everyone we are here for commission special commission meeting Wednesday March 26 2025 and it is 602 beh
here vice mayor Gonzalez here commissioner Amsler Commissioner Huntington here commissioner here Mr the mayor you have a quum one nation with liberty and justice for all
thank you so let's go ahead and open up for public comment we'll start with those here in the what happened and then we'll move on to just a reminder for public comment is limited to three minutes and please provide your name and address before uh before you
address so I am Melania Lea and I live at 590 North Street this is a special commission meeting to discuss the her issue and I didn't get to show my presentation lasted during presentation i'd like more
time in three minutes and I'd like for the presentation projected for public which I go on there i'm trying to get it up so she did she's working on putting it up maybe best thing to do is is kind of recall
for a second and we'll as she works on that we'll kind of come back and Okay and mayor if I could I got I got her pictures i'll pass them around to the entire board oh perfect all right great excellent so you have the picture printed out too that we'll be able to share thank you so we'll do recall so
anyone else wants to step up ahead and keep us going michael Le 590 121st Street i just wanted to take a second to thank the commission for having this meeting to talk about topics and to advocate for a
second for those who don't have the opportunity to advocate for themselves in this room the birds in Montre so as I think I mentioned to you guys last time I really have a wonderful time seeing these birds frolic in my yard all day long i mean guess what it's wonderful something that everybody
should see i think a lot of folks here have actually taken the time to come and see the birds and enjoy them for themselves i can't thank you enough for having taken the time to come and understand what it is that trying to make sure that we can preserve any further opportunity to those folks to be able to see in front
of our houses the park has they'll come keep coming back year after year so I just want to take a moment to thank the commission for their consideration thank you student is Miami um but I've come to see the birds my dear friend house and I think I
like that you have to speak for those that can't speak and once you see these birds and witness them and understand how everything in nature is interconnected it starts to make sense so yes the kinds Australia and China are quote unquote invasive but taking a
sledgehammer to all the pine instead of going carefully as was supposed to be done by every pine and seeing which ones were causing the potential danger instead of just wiping them out and the birds especially through September the
birds are going to be nesting and it is a little bit inplane to knock down nesting birds think about our homes and if someone came in and knock down our homes in the middle of our nesting scene and we have to think about it can't
speak to us but it is they are speaking to us in other ways of wonder and and the bird population in the United States and across the world are being decimated and as the bird populations are decimated it goes down and up will be
changed including how affects each and every one of us even not intricately connected to nature like some of us are so I ask that you thank you for having the meeting and that there's a precise way to do this you could groom the pines
and they've been here for so many years bloom them until the native pine and birds prefer pines plant gate county native pines let them grow let the birds have a chance to make the transition instead of wiping out their nests
sending them away so I'm asking for compassion for consideration and for just understanding we're all interconnected we are not separate from nature you're part of nature ripping i think we can all agree we
can't change what we refuse to acknowledge the commission's plan to destroy all of the plan the heights have been a huge pain so I address this to the commission didn't follow the advice to cut the
trees down in stages didn't receive three separate bids for the work you didn't have a qualified bird person to inspect the trees and because none of this was
followed you've created a scar on our landscape almost wiped out the heron's yearly nesting sites and have traumatized the neighbors who are most directly affected by these wonders this isn't about pointing a
finger at any one person you collectively voted on this plan you are all to blame for this failure understand you would just like to move things along and start having the discussion about replacing the trees
which I heard we don't even have the money for it's kind of mine but wait a darn minute the real scary part of your botched plans is that if it wasn't for those birds and two very astute
neighbors you would have gotten away with this fiasco and no one would have known the difference so before we just move along as though nothing has happened it's time to stop think proceed
with caution for me personally the most important thing that needs to be addressed is what we are going to do with what's left of these pines we know now how valuable they are to our village and all the wildlife they support these trees are the ones that the herand came
back to year after year and you've already destroyed some of their nesting sites i strongly suggest we preserve what's left of our finds and by September you should have enough time to get three separate bids to cut the trees
back many highly educated people and experts have spoken against the trees i have been no expert that don't hold any degrees so in closing I will quote the wisest and richest man was ever walked the earth even by today's standards and
he says the conclusion of the matter everything having been heard is "Fear the true God and keep his commandments for this is the whole obligation of man for the true God will judge every deed
including every hidden thing as to whether it is good or bad." So for the remainder of my time I'd ask that you would reflect on King Solomon's wise words thank you barber 20771 Street
um Dory will probably be amazed that I agree with everything she said and I'm not going to other people have said talked about the birds and how important they are i honestly have never
seen a leaf for when I went there i was amazed myself and I hope all of you take a walk down there to see what's there i have issues with the process of removing the pine trees in 2009 the
commission put on their budget um an item 30,000 and then it went to 35,000 to remove Australian parks it was also to remove any other large dangerous tree without bringing a proposal to the
commission to just discuss removing all of the trees at once i saw that the agenda but it was a consent agenda item just to wave the competitive bid you will live here long enough
$120,000 is a very big amount for this park it's not a typical announce on a project and the fact that I I was just reading the background information they really asked SL who we had done business with before and um Joe's tree trimming
also worked in the park at another company I don't know um that is not the way you should be doing a bid competitive bidding helps save us money and it also is trans
together we have an ordinance that demands competitive bidding and for the commission for the manager to claim that this was an emergency because a tree fell down on 113th Street is hysteric we've had trees fall down
before we had two huge trees in the the at the rec center sector right on the in the top and we didn't know cutting every tree in this park i know here i have no problem with the way they took the the way they they did
the job it seemed to be a clean operation but the fact that on the 4th on um February 4th we had the meeting and wave this competitive bid commissioner Ansler wanted to know where this money
was coming from where are we getting $120,000 at a public works department and the manager couldn't have a real answer and she had said I want I need an answer before I can go and walk with you and at the end of the meeting it sounded
like you were going to have a month to notify residents properly so that because this has always been a controversial issue with things living in the trees at one time were owls it just should have been notified you should have been notifying the
resident and the man it ended up with the manager saying "I'll bring this information back to you in March." But on February 6 the um the manager put out a letter saying that trees were
going to be removed naming streets not naming 141st Street and on February 10th they already started removing trees and it was February 20th that they removed the trees on 121st Street so this is not
the way we should be doing business and it was only Commissioner Samar and Commissioner Ams who even questioned about the bids what's happening that
$120,000 just becomes a nothing item for this commission you you're here to protect our money and to have transparency and this is has nothing to do with Joe's company or the other companies that this isn't the way a bid
is done the other thing that was very disturbing I was on Park and Parkways for over 20 years to to read in the in the manager's letter that we um that Bay County wanted
to donate some trees to us give me a break you You've decimated medians people woke up and probably had a heart attack when they saw that their beautiful medians now look like a desert
119th Street 118th Street and 121st Street they have to stop a little the same way so what kind of sensitivity is there to this village that's one of our most important assets and to start saying
let's ask for contributions from residents because we don't have any money for this that's a lot of crap you have money for everything this should have been part of a plan working with a park and parkways board you could have asked for outside help this should have
been completely done completely differently and it's insulting but it I've read from different commissioners and heard that maybe tree companies can donate some trees it's hardly a charity
community and if you can't stand behind one of the best assets and demand the best trees and have the right tree in the right place you don't belong on this commission i just want to say something briefly about the other item the police
and what's what's going on gary and I have lived here for a very long time and we've been very happy here we always feel very safe we have known all the different police chiefs and the managers and they all seem like nice
guys in fact was a really nice guy and again we're in the news please look carefully into who you are hiring and who they are hiring and this
is your job to make sure we don't end up on channel 10 news thank you 777 i think this episode with the Australian Times led very poorly on the administration and the commission as
well the item was ramped through based on this hyped up near hysteria the failure of of one Australian pine and as Barbara pointed out was the only tree that fell down in the village it's not the failure of the one
tree is not an indicator of the imminent failure of the other 38 the Australian finds that have exceeded their anticipated life but there is methodical and careful way to take care of that those priests if there really
was a concern should have been examined and some that were taken down were nearly a mere fear but be that as it may is not a justification for avoiding compet
avoiding competitive betting for avoiding due diligence certainly I think it was unfair I believe to leave it to to Joe's picture i mean who is a very professional organization to be responsible for
that wasn't reason to avoid negotiation with Northland before you proceeded you know we landscape it 121st Street we put barriers on 21st Street we're going to take down the trees soon it's all and we
keep spending our money without engaging North Miami and the biggest failure of all was not engaging community there are people that woke up in the morning to a chainsaw unawares the tree was coming down the community needs to be fully involved
this this was a bigger issue than doing the birds not that I'm dismissing the birds by any means i think that's very significant aspect of this but this was a big project and then pointed out there should have been a comprehensive plan
what we just plowed ahead pat Kenny Kennedy before he left gave a very stern advice to the commission you're here to protect the residents and quite frankly I don't think you're doing that to be perfectly
blunt sometimes I don't think you have the guts to say no we'll be looking for a village manager folks permanent village manager and I don't want to see another brush job i just want to see acceptance
of the existing village manager just because he's here Max and I certainly don't think we should be selecting a village manager or considering current village manager until the investigation
completed thank you 631 street very disappointing that those Australian pines were cut down how many decades have they been part of this community part of this game park they're part of your history the proper thing to do would have been to inspect each individual
tree and only act on the ones that were truly in bad shape you could have saved a lot of money yes Australian pine is not native but I would caution you to fall into the mindset I call native plant
Nazism the belief that native plants are a master race and the non-natives are all inferior to be exterminated native trees can also fall suddenly gumbo limbo versar is very brittle and branches can
fall off jamaica mahogany sin mahogany also famous for having full grown branches fall off yes Australian pine is not native but nor are we everybody in this room we are all an invasive exotic
species the streets the cars the houses the airplanes our power grid our sewer systems our hospitals we are an invasive human civilization think about the trees the royal quaint sienna one of the most beloved trees in South Florida is not
native it's from Madagascar and finally Florida's official state flower the orange blossom is not native it's from China so please take a broader view find the facts before you act it's maybe too late but I would recommend you
plant back the Australian pine [Music] history well basically I think everything was already said how much to add on why all the process that is went
through pain as just said is not native to here but we are treating them so they've been there for hundreds of years and we took a decision to tear them down when we didn't even know which one was
right and which one was a danger for the neighbors number two I think you hear at least nothing talk about the value of being able to walk under the shade of those trees and
right now living living in 119 where I think six trees were to down it's like a desert out there in the middle of the road and I think it's unacceptable the process that we all share or didn't
share but the process that commission took to tear down the process damage is done we cannot put them back where they were but I think that we should encourage every member of
the commission to think about what are we going to do what are we creating waves that were going back streets i'm not 20 years old to see them grow we moved here three years ago because that street where we live on
today was our dream street and our dream home and right now everything is collapsed you have a desert in front of my house no shade no nothing no trees no birds i don't know anything could change
right and I think that it's totally out of the norm of the way that this execution of the trees was like so I urge and encourage each one of you to
think on what we're going to do have myself in my wife we do not have 30 more years trees that are replacing there that probably are 5t tall right and I
don't know if my grandchildren or grandchildren will ever see a big tree in that tree thank you want to thank everyone who show up today um took the time to meet with us and observe the vers and their mess this
past few days i want to say the commissioners who have shown concern and empathy towards I know who you are we know who you are the Italian Argentinian part of me would like to spoke to the wrong
movement that took place here but I not going to point it they already here because also I believe in that saying that when you point a finger three fingers are pointing back like you and I
do have to admit it is my fault that I choose the comfort of my sofa and night over participating in commissioners after the last one I can say that it's coming to this meeting so
maybe okay it is also my fault that I didn't question the statement about the assessment of the trees and the wildlife inspections i trusted you were doing the right thing so I can take if I can take
responsibility for what I felt to do i think it is fair that you could choose so we can do better from now on which is what I asked you last time here I am operating myself my time and my practical logical way of doing things i may not be an expert on
research science but as a nature educator I think I can be useful as a resident I have been observing and living with those three for 22 years and now I am questioning the behavior and the background that experts are telling us about these treats but I believe
together we can figure it out what will be the solution for everyone including the white we and before I address some concerns I have of what happened now I want to I want to be clear on something that some
people last meeting they say that there was no nest that they were destroy but guess what they were and now we know we know that these birds when they migrate they come back and they use the nest
that they built the year before and the year before they just make it stronger and guess what the two trees that are not in front of my house anymore we are having four birds with no nest the other ones are sitting in S and these ones are
confused and look inside you saw it you saw it you saw it you saw it you did but I want to address concerns that I have i don't know if you talk about it and I feel I need to address the liability because we're talking about
liability well we are facing now with the trees that are no longer there we had a bad traffic you guys know right notice 21st week accidents okay well let me tell you i had three buildings in
front of my home where they cross because you guys put a no U-turn on one side no U-turn on the other side guess what the people are doing they're crossing India amazon trucks they don't want to
go the four five more blocks that they need to go so if we are talking about liability I walk my dogs and majority of us walk our dogs twice a day we do not have places to walk you guys were there
you see how I need to go slow down slow down there are with the phones so what do you think is the probability that I am going to get hit and my dogs are going to get hit or any bat going to get hit more than one branch that in 22
years did you guys talk about that did you guys realize what we were doing i don't see the other um the other thing I want to say is did
you guys notice that the last few years we have more issues with flooding than how much money you guys spend with this pass well let me let me put it this way i'm trying to find where I am right
now um Invasive 100 year old tree that we want to get rid of also have the capability and a root system to prevent streets and houses from flooding you know that from what we read the roof system
absorb water quickly it doesn't take an expert to realize that a 100 years old roots will be absorbing more water faster than a young tree which I believe probably will drown if we have another of the flows that we have last year
because moms that I did adopt the tree in Miami day a so when it's coming up to look for trees like everybody here said don't go for the cheapo So please come
once has a vote if you're going to do that because we really need kids um thank you for listening thank you for letting me express myself i was not going to continue but I end up pointing
it but because I have responsibilities you do i voted for you guys you Yeah yeah can we do better or no oh no no i
want Are you people would you do better yes [Music] i think this is the third or maybe fourth time I've spoken on this same issue with the trade since the first time you guys passed the emergency ordinance um you've already had your
noses rubbed in the carpet several times so I'm not gonna I'm not going to add to that but what I am going to say is I was on the parks and parkway for a wee bit of time that Barbara was on there Barbara was chair and um one of the things that I've done in my life that I
spent my life in public service that I that I'm most proud of is when I was on the board and we put in I think 148 trades or something like that over the the years that I was there and it would be nice and I don't say this to admonish anybody here but it would have been nice to have some of you there when we were
trying to fight with the building to do that because getting the village to plant those new trees even the grants that paid for them to be planted and watered was a battle i don't to this day still know why because as I've said the last three times I talked about the same
issue the two most important things in this village are the things we talk about tonight public safety and our trees because that's why people move here because it's safe and it's beautiful and we have this beautiful tree canopy and bird map and you guys
are the safeguards of all that and so are we and thankfully everybody's here today to express our concern about that so it's already messed up so now the question is what are we going to do to fix it so when we did those tree grants the companies that we hired part of the
county's efforts were that to make sure that the trees that were planted were a certain caliber by caliber I don't mean caliber caliber of the tree the actual height and the width and Florida number one and all the standards that they have um and the company that we plant them
would also tend to them so they will water for a period of time because our staff do not have the capacity to go out and water these trees we have a a water truck that worked on and off i'm not sure if it's working at this point or not um so when we wrote those grants the
companies came and installed the trees and water them for months to make sure that they were established and and I'm happy to say most of those trees not all of them even some of those died even with the care but you can't just grow some trees in here that were going to
get don't you've got to pick we labored over every tree that was planted here um Barbara Gary wasn't even on the committee and Gary went around and measured every hole and we had to GPS coordinate where they would go and we looked at the structure of the other trees and all it's what I'm saying is
this to say it's very important what kind of tree and where you planted and to make sure that we get the right trees of the right height to replace the trees that we took away from the raptors to use those trees there's paragans out there there's all kinds of gorgeous birds that are out there that burgers
here all the time so anyway I hope that you will take a lot more care replacing the trees than we did getting rid of them um the other thing that I haven't heard from any of us speak about last night is what what really concerned me last time because this is being
addressed by public pressure here is what the hell is going on with our police department time after time after time it's it's crazy that we keep finding ourselves in this position um the new the police chief we hired who I
thought was doing a great job for the record i thought he was doing wonderful things um Chief Seal um but I guess there's some debate about that and now you know when you look at the news he's sleeping in the public works office in Mexico Beach with Chris so um I I
realized that the um the manager hires his leads and then those folks hire the other people and you only have to say in who the man in hiring the manager and all the other staff are hired by the man so please Mr childress
and whoever takes the position permanently whether it's you or somebody else please take great care in who we hire and who we vet for these positions so thank you [Music] put in presentation real quick i'd like to first thank the commission
for their time i know what you do is not easy you cannot please everyone and I truly appreciate what you do we're all trying to do the best with information that we have and what we've seen with our own eyes thank you Commissioner Amsler for calling this meeting i'd also like to introduce myself i'm an
environmental artist activists and teaching artists i see all species is deserving of an equal right to live i've worked on native plant and pollinator advocacy for over the last 10 years i founded artists like this inspiration pollution and artful activist i'm a founding member of Beauty led by Mary
Benton which is responsible for the planting of thousands of native plants and trees in South Florida i'm a co-founder of Pesticide Free Miami which strives for soilbased integrated pest management as opposed to the use of harmful pesticides in public spaces i hope talk about that later we've also
added hundreds of native plants to our own garden i champion the benefits of native plants and animals to our ecosystem but I also recognize not everything is black and white and there are benefits of non-native to human and non-human plants for instance did you
know that livestock make up 62% of the world's mammal biomass humans account for 34% and wild animals are just 4% livestock are not native to North America nor are European honeybees who pollinate our crops animal agriculture
is a leading cause of global warming we've caused great imbalances to our planet and molded it to fit around humans the most invasive species on Earth perfect do you want this this part of your first live it's just my introduction oh I'm almost done all
right and um if you can put it on presentation I don't see it sorry thank you perfect solutions do not exist to many issues around species competing to survive especially in a world where humans are over populated
but I think we can strive for solutions that create the least harm possible for us all given that our commissioners were unaware of the yellow town night herand when they voted to cut down all cast arenas or Australian pines at once and were only made aware because of her email I think it's the least we can do
for the herand to make this discussion a priority and keep open mind so thank you everybody taking this a step further as a bird sanctuary would be to prioritize the herand who I believe deserve that also to ground ourselves I'd like to point out that it's Miami Climate Week
let's do the best we can for our environment and take a holistic approach to conservation as things are not always cut and dry okay so now can you show the presentation um I just really want to see I want the public to see the
pictures of her um as I know some of you guys got to come to our her hour the last couple days and see them in person even after this meeting like Vicki said I encourage you guys to come to 121st and see them because they are beautiful we're not sure if these students get cut
down um you want to go to the next slide is it safe factors so I guess just to build time um we did do a a written petition for local people who came to our petition in total we got 446
petition signatures um got back what the presentation asks are at the end it's not presentation presentation yes it's right here from beginning okay but now you're not going to be able to see the Zoom screen to share i don't Is
that just the Zoom so you need to share from this computer share screen now from the current side thank you okay so we started taking photos of um the the nerves for youth has been for a
really long time um my photos go back to 2020 you can see my camera wasn't as good then uh the neighbors on our street have photographed him for many years if you want to go to the next slide that's a baby it's a fledgling so they feel safe in our in our yard that's
actually in our driveway they'll walk around um the flag want to go to the next slide one of the nice things is that this brings together neighbors from North Miami and this game park because our street pass both um were kind of the division line so we always come together
every year and talk about the parents want to go to the next one so this is actually the morning that the trees were cut down in front of Vicky's house which is next to my house as well um I knew the herands were back i've been hearing them all week and then I happened to walk by this one at 8 a.m
that morning it vocalized at me and I knew I was near the nest because it would probably be perished but again go to the next slide uh this is down a little further where you guys came to her to see the herand um so this is where the eight
castana trees are left at 517 North 121st Street um there's actually uh I think five four or five couples on that side of the street and there's two couples nearby house we'll go to the next
slide uh this was the day that um the trees were cut down by Joe so again there's two adult pairs they've been they built nests um or actually refurbished nests because we've learned more information looking into this um the couples watch from a nearby tree as
their nests were cut down um so this says they have not built nests but actually last night they started working on one and it's very sparse um but it has taken them a month to recover and kind of so it has disrupted their their nesting system want to go to the next
slide um so this is this is when the remains were piled on top of the native cocoa ponds that Biscane Parked killing five um in 2018 Kirk Kirk alter is one of our neighbors coordinated at these plantings within the first actually speared us for
tomatoes um they grow they grew pretty well next to the Australian pines the soil did not seem to be poisoned they have threat and down our street and serve consulted urban paradise guild who actually removes native pines native I'm sorry actually removes Australian pines
and fossil so unfortunately those have been built um the next slide please so since the incident uh near my house um neighbors have notified me of other liberies in the neighborhood like this one 19th so where you see the
desert appearance on 19th that's actually that used to hold trees with um nest as well and also on 121st as far as 8 you could go to the next street I'm sorry the next slide the median remains bare like said
covered with what looks to be fester dust adding allowing cars to park and drive through the median the irony is that this is um 100 feet away from an extremely pressing public safety issue on 6th Avenue where a car accident occurs sometimes weekly sometimes daily
which we've been asking to be addressed for years and okay go to the next slide i think um we're all running from here i talked about all these but we are a bird sanctuary yet not considered we must prioritize
our birds and wildlife and speak to residents who observe them i think we can offer you on that you want to click to the next one um trees were cut down during nesting season without wildlife inspection uh we
owe it to our wild trees to hire experts and our holistic objective environmental consulting firms next one please residents of Northeast 121st were not notified nor will this be or their West we we can improve communication with
residents in North next one please trees in our mediums have not been maintained we must prioritize our canopy as each tree is an ecosystem of its own native are not healthy or not mature trees offer shade and can cool the temperature by 10° F which is
critical to livability here as temperatures continue to rise from global warming they also mitigate flooding and erosion like Vicki said we also very concerned about that careful selection of replacement trees is of utmost
importance next one please lack of pruning or maintenance resulted in a larger financial burden of $120,000 this project did not include competitive bidding i also believe you can save funds in future recruiting and competitive
if you could go to the next one um this is actually the next slide is the arbur report from public records request that I did um that shows F SFM's um assessment i don't know
what date this was from i've been told it's from 2021 but I'm not sure um this only identified two Australian pines on 21st on our strike on our S be removed it didn't even include the ones in front of these um I really think we can we're
going to have to start um assessing trees more often if we're really concerned about liability and then the next slide which is my last one where do we go from here our ask is that we pass a resolution that no caster with yellow
parents nests or nests next to the trees with the nests can be touched through September of 2025 i know we're talking about that i would just like it in writing please hired objective holistic environmental consulting firm to assess building trees
and preserve any healthy pastas by methods suggested by the consulting firms until placement trees are identified planted throughout village and grow spa to compensate for those removes yellow crown nights will nest on my oak and mahogany but they clearly put
their pest for height and other characteristics that we just don't understand um create policy that will ensure trees will not be cut during nesting season in the future and that proper protocol will be followed having certified our wildlife expert or
environmental consulting firm inspect close to the time of cutting because as we know the birds come at different times we don't always know when they're going to be arriving and last but not least please engage with the residents on diverse selection of replacement trees which will ideally include some
kinds like said we're going to be more now meetings and then I already talked about the petition signatures um I have here thank you guys so much i appreciate the time close the window
yes yes okay 18th Street um and I don't have written prepared i just want to say despite the fact that there Australian kinds of are um invasive they're not really invasive during this game park and and
it's known through lots of other communities that they're not invasive the yards are the place to go regularly they don't fly all over the place um I just wanted to let you know um what I think is that yes danger is an issue or
something i've seen one of these trees fall and they do fall and do split um one of my friends was victim of a hurricane house is going to fund growth and it's in many cases damage to houses rather
than people is often the case um I just want you to know that um I did some research on this way back in 2013 when I proposed a resolution that was not passed um to uh take care of our Australian kinds and I noted that um I
did some research and I was trying to call back some copies for you and I probably did so unseted i'm going to give a copy to the computer to share but I'll zero it or scan it um it's you know my my hard copy on the computer is like two computers ago so I can find it
anyway um pepper pines screen by beach have all passed special resolutions concerning uh the um where they were and how they should be taken care of um if they are approved
regularly um they can say even at this stage there are many um there are indeed as as has been pointed out I'm sure that many and um the one thing that I think it's really important is the issue of the her and not just her but eagles in
pepper pines by a mile from the Everglades um in 2008 2009 9 there were um found bald eagles nesting in defines there and indeed when I was over the 21st cere last Sunday I saw eagle flying
by so there could be eagles playing there and actually there were state positions and statutes that trees cannot be taken down during the fall nesting season so I'll provide you with the with the information and so that you can educate yourselves a little more and
some other websites that you might look at with questions and answers um about so I just hope that I had proposed I couldn't find what I actually my resolution was I don't find a backup copy um but it one of the provisions I do recall was the suggestion that that
you have two independent arborists uh checking the um checking the uh checking the health of the pines making sure that they're trimmed rightly i know that some are really prejudiced and just like orthopedic surgeons orthopedic doctors
often are they're taught to crush and so the first the first course of resources the first resources if you've got bad leg or bad knee is to do surgery rather than physical therapy so I think you should take that into heart of whatever arbur you get one other thing in researching this and I talked to about
half a dozen communities that had Australian vines and they take a specific uh they need a specific fertilizer that is expensive and I think money was part of the research that they so I hope that in the next budget
we will think about providing for not only those clients but all the students at the same park thank you we live Northeast 15th Street um I'm a member of the Parks Parkways board we've been slowly gaining momentum over the
past couple of months and now we have a fire lit up for us that we're excited and happy to take on um I am just here listening tonight as an official member of the board but as a resident um just to hear what people have to say um at
the next commission meeting uh we uh our minutes are posted we just met last week and we prepared a report that was sent um to be shared at the next commission meeting um that just kind of overviews um some next steps that we recommend to be taken right now um but then also we
would love to hear more from residents so you can I believe you can email us to the village clerk um and you're welcome to join our meetings that'll be on the village calendar um and if you um have any other research or information that
be helpful as we move forward if our board is now uh active and running so that's it hr 1029 so I'm actually talking about something for the governor tonight um so
um the um something came to my attention last week just happened to hear on the news that there's a um house bill that's being considered to expand the the uh lo the local uh act that is um that's uh we've already we're already dealing with
uh this new one is uh they're now considering uh creating rain flats and basically um imposing it upon single family zones um it's um it's uh it's basically they want to take away our ability to maintain the village the way
it is um they want to you know let people be able basically take our village is threequarters single family they want to take that away and make so that people can make duplexes um so there's a lot of um things that um that is wrong with it i know that the um the
League of City um League of Cities is against it and uh I just wanted you guys to be aware of it so that maybe at the next commission meeting we can talk about it or something like that but it's just something that it's going to it could possibly affect us it could increase the lot coverages it could it
actually would um not let us enforce our number of parking spaces um it would uh you know it mean more trees coming down more more parking more uh more equipment um there's a lot of things that are u that are scary and uh one of the big
ones is that you know these these new granny flats could be possibly Airbnbs um so we might end up with more Airbnbs so um I I'm bringing it to your attention so that we can maybe um next next week talk about it more in depth i know the agenda's already been posted
but put on a discussion and maybe we can as a bill to come to a you know some have a message that we'd like to know and I'll everyone else already spoken about the other issues and I'll touch on that
thank you okay 115 place Jonathan Brian I have real doubt for this productive and positive
and same goes for everyone a lot of time and that's not an easy thing to do when the situation is very visceral and very emotional in heard a lot of interesting comments the one thing I'm going to ask that you not allow any
people to be added to the fire and that is the commission member who so far in every meeting has launched against our current manager counterproductive he had to be corrected at the March meeting which was going
down a lot of good come out of tonight's meeting good ideas were thrown out you guys to be here don't let it be dragged Even though I am a resident and I res here on behalf of the public secret
station today uh just to share generally the story from our side and uh our thoughts on so uh just to briefly touch on my personal side of things uh I have been watching
these yellow parents on my blog for the last six years first one showed up there 2019 it was an adolescent like the one in your photo um grew up got a girlfriend girlfriend moved in uh they visited for maybe I spent like four
years with a mating couple um and then they are so it's unfortunate um now as far as harbor goes we're not a policy application organization so we're not here to say what you should or
shouldn't do we're also notists so we don't really have a particular opinion on what trees planted moved um what I can say is that when these trees are removed the herand are likely to move on that have
already been removed those are probably um while new trees could be planted and parents might choose that there's no guarantee that they will because they favor trees to pine trees for them to potentially
Uh I saw the September time frame mentioned and we do agree with that relatively so there's not a set mating season end for yellow night parents they uh from March through the summer if
they're successful they might have two nests or two rather um sets of babies so they might extend the mating season out to possibly the end of summer so September is reasonable um as a time to perhaps move trees without serving
babies but again the first will probably after that um giant wants to know I mean honestly That is pretty much everything that we have to say on on how to potentially move forward as far as our involvement
um is not aware contact beforehand we are not a consulting firm that was kind of it probably is best to go through a group like that um but we are available to give our input so we hired an
arborist and talk to them trees and it's just we're hospital education but we're not in this kind of way so it wouldn't be our expert [Music]
oh Michael thank you so much for coming [Music] northampton Street um I want to talk about two things i want to definitely want you know treatment birds to say their piece because I'm going to talk about something completely different but
um on that topic I I want to say envir environmental issues and ecological issues are near and dear to my heart so to see the having full of people um saying their piece whether it be right wrong or whatever speaking their opinions and having the room filled um
is really really special and so thank you for everyone coming out to say something for the birds um what I'm speaking about today is uh talking about Commissioner Mary's unprofessional and reprehensible
behavior the depravity of his character and the unethical use of his title as commissioner it needs to be publicly stated so Commissioner Samar's character and misdoings are transparent to residents there's a pattern of harassment many residents have received
from Commissioner Samaria but I'll focus on ours on March 14th Commissioner Samriia filed a formal complaint with internal affairs at the police and fire department at which uh at my husband's city of employment his intentions were
clear it was to try to destroy my husband's reputation disrupt our livelihood and inflict emotional damage the complaint was based on events surrounding the medical emergency my husband experienced in village property in the middle of November's
commission meeting my husband collapsed and was unresponsive the inconceivable was unfolding in a very public setting in front of the attendees residents and staff my husband was medically cleared by fire rescue however when we went home he progressively worsened and EMS was
called to transport him to the hospital it would be hours in the ER wondering if our children would see their dad again and I'm speeding myself up for forfeiting our last minutes as a family rushing him rushing our kids out the door of the lock cabin it was a terrifying experience we both hoped to
recover from privately unfortunately our traumatic ordeal was exploited 6 months later by Commissioner Samaria his formal complaint was not done to uncover misconduct but to continue this predictable pattern of furnishing lives to tarnish his people's character and
reputation and cause irreparable pain commissioner Smearia took no precautionary steps to acknowledge that once these malicious claims were created they would affect a family of five we depend on a single income the moment he followed through it was consent for disrupting our lives financially and emotionally for his own personal
satisfaction i'm sure you don't fan ignorance solicit empathy as you always do however any rational person with concerns of this way would immediately speak with a village manager or attorney they will build a case over time using public records with agencies involved speak to
the fire department and gather any and all witnesses and documentation of misconduct he alleges my husband committed you did none of those things your first course of action was to file a formal complaint with zero supporting documents witnesses or any account rooted in fact it was no coincidence you
filed this complaint after a contentious commission meeting where you verbalized your anger that my husband corrected you on your lies using his seat to leverage a personal attack against colleague experiencing a medical emergency is beyond dishonorable and needs to be
repudiated not only is this behavior important for a commissioner it's in pain moral act as a person this could happen to anyone as everyone is fair game to commissioner Samriia our charter contains a citizen bill of rights which I believe is not being upheld to protect residents like myself from elected officials like Commissioner
Samaria he's a bull in a china shop untamed underring and inflicting personal and financial damage to the residents of this game park and this has gone on far too long and stop thank you [Music]
so um madam cler why don't we go ahead and open it up to folks on Zoom if you'd like to make comment on Zoom please raise your hand and cler Laura unmute please laura have you there on Zoom
laura if you can hear us the clerk would like to start why don't we um work on the technological issues there maybe I'll move on to the next person please okay uh let's see we'll
come back to you christopher Boyin hi hi can you hear me okay yes sir um I was a resident of North Miami from 2000 first of all good evening and thank you so much for your time um I love Biscane Park and I love that log cabin and thanks thanks to everyone in the
room and for everyone in the commission who's there tonight i was a resident of North Miami just across the street on 739 Northeast 121st Street from 2005 until January of 2024 um I I was also the executive director of Pelican Harbor
Seabird Station for nine years and um I love native plants i love native trees i know the issue around non-native Australian pines casharinaoglia um when I was in college I studied yellowrown night herand and um I stud I monitored 36 nests in Gulport
Florida St petersburg and they were actually all in pine trees and as we know we lost a lot of our native pine trees to development in southeast Florida particularly in Date and Bribery counties and so around I heard Michael earlier great job Michael but around
2019 or so we had a yellow crown knighth heron show up in our yard and 739 Northeast 121st Street and our neighbors and the first nest the first year the nest failed but in the all the following years the nest was successful and so I was so elated and excited to see that
happening in North Miami Biscane Park i didn't know about the other nests in the neighborhood and I don't fully understand um what's happened i think some trees were cut down i know I assume that no one intended any harm to birds um but certainly they're protected under
the migratory bird treaty act and as Michael said they can absolutely double clutch or produce two different sets of young in a season because of our warm climate their crustation specialist 97.6% of their diet is mullisk um crabs
shrimp that they feed on in the Biscane Canal and that's why they're in Biscane Park because they're feeding in the Biscane Canal nearby during low tide on crabs fiddler crabs etc but um anyway that's it just thanks for protecting the birds thanks for being respectful of nature and wildlife biscane Park is a
bird sanctuary and it's always been so outstanding in its care for birds and nature and always a friend and sponsor to Pelican Harbor and I miss living up there and I wish you all the best and I thank you for your time annie on please good evening my name is Annie
Clinton and I reside at 11520 Northeast 6th Avenue as a concerned resident I am deep deeply troubled by the recent events unfolding in our community it has become increasingly clear that there are serious issues under the leadership of
our current city manager and others in authority let's start with the most visible one the destruction of our environment over $120,000 of taxpayer money was spent to cut down the Australian pines trees that
have been part of our local ecosystem for hundreds of years not only was there no public consultation but there was also no real plan to restore what was lost this is a wasteful reckless use of our funds and
it directly impacts our environment our health and the beauty of our village now we are hearing that public funds will also be used to finance internal investigations at the police department investigations that appear politically motivated rather than
legally justified the initial cost is reported reportedly $10,000 with the potential for more once again our taxpayer money is being spent indiscriminately instead of being used for what we truly need like proper water
pumps when our neighborhoods flood or basic infrastructure for our safety these funds are being allocated to internal disputes and retaliation from what we're seeing everything seems to be a priority for this administration
except for us the residents who live here and pay the taxes that sustain this village decisions are being made without consultation without transparency and without community input and that has to stop former Chief Mark Steele during his
brief tenure brought visible change he worked alongside his officers led by example and restored discipline and professionalism to our police department his departure left a clear gap and it's evident since then we've seen a return
to disorder and disengagement for the first time in a long while we had seen officers actively patrolling and improving roadway safety however in just a matter of weeks that progress has reversed i personally asked several
officers why they are no longer conducting traffic enforcement on 6th Avenue and it was informed that Captain Jorge Rosario directed them not to patrol that area this is deeply troubling as 6th Avenue is one of the most dangerous and high-speed corridors
in Biscane Park similarly Griffin Boulevard has once again become a hot spot for reckless speeding making it hazardous for pedestrians and residents alike under the previous leadership I frequently saw the police chief and captain personally
working alongside officers to address speeding violations their commitment to leading by example was commendable when I asked them why they were personally involved in enforcement their response was simply was simple they would never
ask their officers to do something they would unwillingly they were unwilling to do themselves this level of dedication to community safety was something I had never witnessed in other cities since the chief's departure however I have not seen similar engagement from current
leadership a strong police department must be visible and actively engaged with the community not confined to an office detached from the realities of our streets also I want to express how concerning it is to see changes to the
meeting schedule which is very alarming because what is going on here this meeting was held during working hours something that was never been typical in this village according to what I read it was rescheduled to accommodate the mayor
if that was the case it would have been more appropriate to move the meeting to an evening where all res residents could participate and express themselves as protected by the first amendment these types of decisions should not in exclude
the very people they are meant to serve equally concerning is the behavior seen online in our community chat after the last commission meeting two new suspicious profiles Joshua and Bethany were created and began posting
aggressively these profiles which have since become inactive appeared to focus on spreading hostility and targeting both former Chief Mark Steele and former mayor Chris Trust two individuals who many in this village respect
these posts were filled with misinformation condescension and in some cases direct disrespect i personally was addressed in an inappropriate way with language like baby girl which is unacceptable in any public forum these comments clearly did not come from
community members acting in good faith they were toxic manipulative and damaging there's a deeper issue here an issue of accountability ethics and public trust residents deserve answers we deserve transparency and we deserve
leaders who use our resources to protect and uplift this village not to silence or punish those who speak the truth changes must be made and I firmly believe that the city manager should be removed before further damage is done our city has been in the news far too
often for the wrong reasons and it is both embarrassing and unacceptable i urge the commission to fulfill its duty to the residents of Biscane Park and take decisive action to restore restore integrity and transparency to our local government i urge the commission to do
the job you were elected to do with integrity and with the residents in mind so again there's a profile logged in that's Laura with the handra okay can you hear me now this Laura Graves yes we
can thank you hi okay uh Laura Graves 11725 Griffin Boulevard uh I just wanted to firstly say and reiterate what several people have said which is we are a bird sanctuary we are on the National
Registry of Bird Sanctuaries i am not an advocate for tearing trees down i understand that things have to happen from time to time but my biggest challenge and I really hope the
commission is listening is there was zero plan in place when these trees were torn down i actually looked at the um document that was submitted to tonight's meeting and it very clearly had no plan in place for the replacement of the
trees that were torn down or for the maintenance and watering of trees to um be replanted after my husband and I purchased our home on Griffin in 2004 living in another area of the park
first because there were four beautiful Australian pines in the median in front of our home less than a year later in 2005 all four of those trees were torn down we vehemently opposed it but they
were nonetheless torn down very shortly thereafter four oak trees were planted the village of Biscane Park came and watered those trees religiously every week for a year and also fertilized when needed so they could take root and grow
and they are now beautiful trees so I ask moving forward a that the commission is transparent with us i feel like there's a real disconnect and lack of communication and so it creates a a lot
of distrust because there's not transparency but if a tree is to be torn down the monies have to be in place for replacement the actual physical tree has to be queued up for replacement and the maintenance for the watering and the
fertilization of the tree or trees so it can grow into perpetuity and beyond i hope you all have a good night thank you [Music] good evening my name is Don address protected in Florida statute 119 i'm an
investigative reporter committed to uncovering the truth behind the persistent corruption within the village of Biscane Park my recent investigation is focused on the Australian pine removal project revealing some alarming concerns through multiple interviews and delay and delayed or incomplete responses to public record requests it
appears that the justification for this operation may not have been entirely transparent a key issue is the apparent absence of aberist reports that Mr childress has repeatedly referenced were these trees truly diseased or was this claim used to expedite the process without proper due diligence the only
documentation provided thus far consists of reports from a tree maintenance company raising the questions of whether the trees were declared unhealthy to secure a contract rather than one of genuine environmental necessity one particularly troubling inconsistency is that the tree that fell on Northeast 113th Street was never previously
identified as a hazard several arborists I have interviewed stated that a basic assessment such as tapping the trees could have easily determined which ones posed an immediate safety risk yet the village moved forward with this operation based on questionable information seemingly bypassing necessary evaluations further concerns
have emerged regarding the village's financial practices multiple vendors in the area have reported delayed or delinquent payments for services rendered except for Joe's Tree Service the company responsible for removing the trees testimony suggests that Mr childress has expedited payments to Joe's tree service prioritizing them
over other obligations reports indicate that he personally retrie retrieves and delivers these checks a level of attention not afforded to other contractors except in cases of overdue payments requiring required to resume pending work beyond financial irregularities the lack of transparency
surrounding wildlife protection is deeply troubling both the commission and the community were assured that wildlife assessments would be conducted and that wildlife organizations would be contacted when necessary however these assurances appear to have been misleading a resident witnessed tree service workers begin cutting down an
Australian pine on northeast 119th Street without first checking for wildlife as a result a frightened raccoon was forced from its nest and became trapped on a limb the cutting continued causing the animal to fall over two stories to the ground as the raccoon struggled to recover and fled to
a neighbor's yard workers repeatedly left and attempted to take photographs additionally two large bee nests in the area were exterminated rather than relocated costing the village an additional $5,000 an expense not included in the $120,000 contra contract
paid to the tree service these troubling findings suggest that the wildlife protection was never a priority in this operation instead there are indications that the project may have been executed with the attempt to eliminate local wildlife rather than preserve it i remain committed to uncovering the truth behind these actions and ensuring
transparency for the re residents of Biscane Park my investigation will continue and once all the facts have been established the complete findings will be shared with the public jamie Steel hello so can you hear me yes we can
okay so good evening uh commissioners and everyone present my name is Yil Steel and my address is protected under the chapter 119 i'm here tonight on my own to exercise my right to speak on behalf of my husband who is currently
work ex-chief Mark Steel i would like to respond to the comments made by ex officer Navaro during the last commission meeting he spoke last um just before public comment was closed leaving
no chance for everyone to response today I speak not only as a resident but also as the wife of Mark Steel ex officer Navaro made several allegally false and concerning remarks about my husband in
my opinion the tone and context on these statements appears meant damage Mark's professional reputation in the way that felt personal and unfair very personal and very first so this is especially disappointing coming from someone who
wants service in the law enforcement he also encou the public to view my husband Lincoln profile i would like to clarify that Lincoln is no official or legal source of employment verification anyone can create or edit a profile and is not
review or validate by any formal agency a person could write anything about themselves or link it but when you review public records you get verified facts for that reason I find troubling that such as a platform was used it to
question someone's career or characters to use link in that way in my view shows a misunderstanding of how professional records are verified and I and feels more like it and attempts to discredit
someone without solid evidence that kind of approach is not contra contra and certainly no professional of officer Navaro also brought up a past case involving my
husband from his his um his his his work when he was working in ABT agents um from what I understand I followed a familiar patterns mark raising concerns about possible misconduct and in return
he faced push back but later the officer office of impector general confirmed that individuals he reported were found guilty that is part of the public record while the final outcome may not have
been perfect that that does not change the fact that he spoke up when it matters that deserve respect not criticism now turning to visc part during the last meeting it was charged that five of
different host work environment complaint were submitted before Mark resigned these complaints were directed at the city manager and submitted to the village attorneys who at the same time meeting was seen speaking continually with the manager during the public
comments as if they were holding a private meeting of their own in my opinion that behavior was unfortunate and dismissive of the serious concern being raised it now the same attorney is
allegally involved in the effort to open an investigation into my husband despite no prior prior action being taken when the complaints were submitted they did not act when concern raised and now the attention the attention is on the person
who was sp up this raises serious questions and leave many persons including myself deeply concerned when my husband submitted those complaints he received no support not even from the commissioners there were no there was no
effort to determinate whether what was sign saying the through or not just a deep sign as an answer but only public funds are being using to investigate him in my
opinion that does not feel like justice if those original complaint have been properly addressed perhaps we wouldn't be here today it also worth noting that several officers officers including a captain
and a police chief resigned during that time only one rem Captain Rosto and he now works closely with the same leader leadership involving in those in these concerns while I'm not suggesting
anything improper it's reasonable to say that these facts raise important concerns we deserve no silence as an answer we deserve fair fairness and justice no retaliation thank you so much
for hear me and give me the opportunity to speak up today have a good day and thank you so much [Music] lou the person Lou please unmute yourself good evening everyone my name is Lou Bar
address is protected under Florida statute 119 i am an investigative reporter conducting a parallel investigation into the village of Biscane Park the emerging facts surrounding this situation raise serious concerns that warrant closer scrutiny
following numerous interviews it has come to light that the trees removed during this operation were ordered to be cut down immediately after public scrutiny from residents and journalists upon personally investigating inspecting
the the cut trees I observed that only a small number possibly two exhibited signs of disease the majority appeared to be healthy while documenting my findings through photographs I was ordered to leave by Mr childress who
cited safety concerns subsequently I spoke with Commissioner Huntington who quickly asserted that the trees were hollow and posed an immediate danger to the community however when I reached out to employees of the public works department and the police department for
further insight many were hesitant to discuss the project in detail their only their only stated role was to oversee the operation and ensure public safety during one particular conversation I witnessed an interaction that raised
additional concerns tree service workers called over the police chief and captain while carrying a bird's nest from the culdesac on Northeast 118th Street the police chief shook his head in apparent disapproval before making a phone call
shortly thereafter a black Tahoe arrived at the site and Mr childress stepped out passing the police personnel without acknowledgement he proceeded directly to Joe the tree service contractor and the two engaged in a brief conversation
during their exchange Mr childress pointed to the wood chipper to which Joe nodded in agreement mr childress then handed Joe a white envelope before departing without addressing any village employees moments later the tree service
workers discarded the bird's nest into the wood chipper the only visible reaction came from the police chief who again shook his head in apparent frustration while engaging in what seemed to be a heated conversation seeking further
clarification I approached the police chief to inquire about what I had just witnessed his response was simply no comment and he directed all inquiries to the office of the village manager when asked whether he had seen the nest being
destroyed and whether it contained birds or eggs he reiterated that all questions must go through the village manager's office after reported attempts to follow up in the days that followed the police chief eventually made a revealing remark
stating that numerous wildlife was displaced by this project during a separate conversation with a resident the chief discussed efforts to plant and donate trees to restore the area's wildlife habitat further interviews
uncovered internal tensions within the village a police officer disclosed that the police chief and the village manager had engaged in multiple heated disputes over the tree removal project particularly regarding the failure to implement any wildlife protection
measures the officer spoke highly of the chief describing him as not only the most dedicated leader in the department but also deeply committed to protecting animals and wildlife he recounted instances where the chief personally rescued injured birds turtles tortoises
dogs cats and even rabbits the officer noted that the chief once suffered a bite to the face while rescuing a bird struck by struck by a vehicle an act emblematic of this
dedication to both the community and its wildlife this raises an important question was the chief forced out following these conflicts over wildlife protection or did these disputes contribute to his departure notably the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission has since launched an launched an inquiry into this situation and further details are expected to emerge thank you for your time i'm sorry there are no further uh comments on Zoom once don't see any
okay all right so that is going to conclude our public comments for this evening um we'll go ahead and then we'll enter comments and a lot of keep in mind that we talk about is on our agenda for discussion so uh um you know the
discussion but what I would like to say is is um you know certainly uh unfortunately we're not able to make the last goal um and I'm just I'm very happy to see people out engaging um keeping us holding us to the task um because
ultimately stop us um so I appreciate that i do glad to see everyone here and I would love to see this level of involvement in each part um there are a few things that I'd just like to highlight that I unfortunately not had an opportunity to talk with you know these meetings about um and just
kind of give a couple highlights really quickly some of the things some of the discussions that I've had with county about this issue when it started and I've been in touch with um I want to make sure I get this right because it's a mouthful the division chief the urban
forest and tree division with Durham um a gentleman by the name of James D he's been very helpful um and he's very willing to engage with us and help us with this issue um he gave me a lot of highlights on you know on the necessities for you know controlling
non-native and invasive species he he gave a host of reasons as to you know why they're removed what county ordinances are in place um that actually require the removal doing certain development on private property or even um street paving sorry street p excuse
me when we do street paving he said that county ordinance actually requires the removal of non nonated invasive species which this would fall under now I don't want to paraphrase for him because I'm sure I won't say it as well as he will say it um I have invited him to be here i understand that there are um there are
levels of kind of approvals he needs to go through in order to come to a public meeting so I hope that he will join us at one of these and have an opportunity to address the public because he's very knowledgeable um and again he would say much better than I would say so I don't want to misinterpret anything that he said so um what I can say is that the
county is here to help us they've expressed their intent to help us um and specifically he's expressed the intent to help us with native uh replacements for the streets that the Fing at I won't say for him but at a very
good cost um so I'm I'm glad to hear that they're help us he's very willing to work with us um so I do I would just do want an opportunity that you got an opportunity before you know I know a couple other things I don't want to take up too much
time discussion item of course um there was one thing that I I do feel compelled to mention uh someone who mentioned something about this meeting for me um I I certainly don't I hope and and I don't mean to impose that this was other than my character um but we didn't move this
meeting i wasn't figured as I asked it to be um it was normal procedures we said these meetings together a couple of dates and we say which days we can make which we try to find where everyone can make it so I think I had mentioned that I wasn't available on two of the days because of work commitments so I think
we stay but it's not that we moved time because I asked it so I do feel mention that because I want to bring that up um couple other items one other thing um again because I had these discussions
but wasn't able to bring it up at the prior meeting because I was here i have been in touch with mayor plan um he has expressed an intent and willing to to help us on one those discussions stopped um and the reason they stopped is because we stopped um when this this issue come up
um with the issue with the birds and nesting and everything so we didn't continue to follow up now we will continue I will continue those conversations for the services that were um were carried out on 21st because um there there is a shared shared um
responsibility on that um so again notator has expressed an intent i spoke to phone a couple times to help share that burden um but again the rest of those trees as I understand it we'll get into this part of the discussion but as I understand it those trees will not be touched for some time um so just wanted
everyone to know that because I hadn't had an opportunity to address before I appreciate you giving it over to the commission i have just a really quick question for the attorney because I've been hearing a lot about chapter 119 which I had never heard before until just recently and
this is now coming up constantly um I just looked at the statute and I don't see anything there about investigative reporters uh um no there's no public records exemption for investigative reporter so in the future what I'm what I'm guessing
is that they are either present or former law enforcement officers and that's not how they're presenting i I I understand and you could certainly question them as to what what provision for the village could certainly question as to what provision under 119 and that
they're asserting a privilege but um the way I the way I took it and you're absolutely correct they did not state that that they were either president or former law enforcement officers and there is a provision in that in 119 um
19071 don't ask me the sub paragraph i think it's subhater too but I'm not 100% sure that um the names and addresses um and phone numbers of present or former law enforcement officers and their families were exact so I that was the
way I took it but that's just an assumption on my part but you are correct they did not um an investigative reporter is not protected under any um anything in the one end i appreciate you mentioning that i was I just couple I appreciate you thank you
just want to say thank you for coming out it is someone mentioned it is refreshing to see this plug in full and we don't get this a lot and hopefully you all stay engaged and come back out for other issues uh there's been a real lack of participation at this village
and I really hope this welcome uh I will say one thing that this commission has stated multiple times and continue the trees and such until September i think manager made that clear i'll support that through September um yeah that's everything else here we'll address our
um want to thank everybody for coming out tonight i hope this continues i love this kind of participation as we propose uh I want to thank the residents that haven't come out to the tree i was very educated i learned that
[Music] I [Music] see I'll say my response for the subject matter comes up i do have something um thank you everyone for coming um I'll just draw since we're going to go into
the different items and specifically dive in to answer a lot of the questions that were coming forward i just want to address some that were out of the agenda um one specific page i actually had noted that in my um commission report
for next agenda that there's bills being passed right now but um to be very careful and take what I would ask the manager in this case
from just think the as follow it okay and uh there were a few items that were handed out by residents um for public i want to make sure that this is going to make reference copies okay great i know at least that there are
photos from the front which is No she's on she did a wonderful job with it um and uh I was actually up there with her this evening and earlier this evening before the meeting actually so it was nice that she did that and she made that available but
this was really well done i do want to make sure that it's part of our public so we'll make sure that um okay so um let's go ahead and move on to our discussion item in section six and our first discussion item is on the replacement plan for clients um and it's
Commissioner it's your item so you want to give some introduction no question thank you very much again thank you for everyone here um we have a resolution uh 2024-8 under commission and agenda
procedures one states that all agendas committee [Music] agend wasn't done today and there were multiple changes to the day that's where the question I think came Um the reality that I'm thankful for all
of you make it today at 6 p.m um I keep being asked manager several times and I think obviously my point is not to come with the item so it'll be
circle thankfully but the idea is that we can like come forward and have the opportunity um transparency in the last meeting it's huge concern it's a huge issue when I
see people coming forward they are misleading using information that might not accurate posting things in social media and the first intention to me the first thing that comes out is I want to be share what I know and then I realize sometimes
I would so the intention of the item is to have the space to talk about something that concern a lot of residents or leaders now and that we recently move forward and to my surprise I would say because I was expected that
it was midnight and we need to talk about what we did because then we can better um so that my highlight um so I'm going to start talking about the fact that there were sanctuary I think all of you know and I'm discussion
as to whether it is something that's current that was our number one ordinance in 1932 but we are at their uh sanctuary and it's punishable by law right what is the the punish uh if you
were not to follow the ordinance i don't remember it's uh up to a $500 fine to 60 days and in jail so it's a serious matter that the village made it serious for a reason by making the first ordinance so we don't take this same
argument and so I want to appreciate the community for making this space this month to have this all right so we had a tree come down and it was uh it was a chaos 45
homes were left with electricity and it took hours to place oh yeah took a while for that to actually be back up and like a whole mess on the street and that created a
big question which is what do we do with this and it's been a conversation ongoing for years prior for any of us I think and it's an item that has been the agenda and CIP which is our capital plan
highlighted with the specific budget to be addressed but here we are after so long being put in the spot of an emergency action be taking place for safety measures i have several questions from
state under the emergency um quote um we were sharing a memo and uh the manager said you know the survey conducted on the government memo revealed there were 37 Australian funds
that were collapsed and the manager has determined that the Australian funds are significant none of us are hardress none of us have worked in government before had an experience on the background or
fully different assessments that are so we trust fully in the direction of the manager and we asked the question and you totally I feel the fell short and I think a lot of push back is given to many of the
things budget allocations plans for this um the ability to moving faces or brought up the ability to pay in places because we're now doing a big hit and we don't
know how yet um to our public works and when you're put in session of life uh matters and you know sort of this is it could happen anytime you have a liability for it really puts pressure
in a way that um in this case I think maybe push some of the additional questions um so that is my perspective on how this item was pushed forward um I can tell you there were several questions for
um Peter and I was specifically requested to coordinate with a certified organization to ensure the trees were clear of wildlife before that didn't happen and I think that's one of the reason for And I found
out one way I found out about this um um she activist and supporter general that um that means I was saying that was going on and then consequently the manager advisor
that was found stop the work um and then the question came about how and why afraid of the organization uh the project timeline was
always a question the vendor committed to handling the work with urgency as they may sufficiently in one to two months um I even mentioned the idea of having the opportunity to check with this organization for 35 time to do
so um the idea that we are sharing the streets with no um maybe based on the expenses working on the trees we're located and share boundaries um and the internet manager together with mayor are working to
find budget allocation funding was expected from public work as I mentioned additional funds needed requiring additional work of transfer which requires permission of any time so
um yes many questions were breaks and the the the strongest I think I learned um it's how imminent this danger was and um the
memo uh was not presented either not only with the budget uh specification but also the report from the ars but we were um have been identified to be [Music]
remove and so again here we are and we have eight three left correct eight trees in the room and the questions uh that presentation and many of you brought up is what do we do this earning
and that's part of I listed four points of discussion on that but I'm going your thoughts as well why don't you The first one goes into the next steps for the remaining of the Australian
plants so I would have loved to see proper assessment on the structural integrity of this tree that is relevant before um Brian I have a question for you in the meeting we made mention of the survey and one of the tree that fell down and
it's not um labeled as dangerous okay so it wasn't on the survey we have a survey and public request and I um actually spoke to the directly and specified the survey itself
from 2021 the map is the recommendation map did not have that and they were 20 points and from 1 to 10 the way they evaluated the higher risk ones
are of course within the list of all the Australians at some point highlighted to be removed okay by the vendor um immediate ones who the most um concern
those 24 and um please correct me if I'm not if I'm wrong because the only survey I got was from the vendor and I want to make sure that that's the same one that you're in share with me for the map that we saw today in the presentation
uh commissioner there was two there was a survey done I believe is in 2019 by SFW and that and that surve survey as um as Commissioner Huntington said didn't include all the trees all the Australian
pines within the village of Biscane Park including the one that fell on 111 11th Street that was that was included but I I went back and I looked at it it again before the meeting and I think there was some um some 80 trees on that list they
weren't identified they weren't marked but they counted they had different numbers and I think it came out to like 80 80 but the one on 111th was not identified so that when after that when after the one on 111 fell we said we
needed to do a a survey and get uh quotes for to to remove all the all the Australian vines and that's when we contacted Joe's landscaping and the other and the other uh and we also contacted SFW to come out and do a new survey also
not not the survey you mean by and to measure the health of the structure or no no they come out and identify all the trees all the Australian pines within the village SFW the original SFM SF it's SFM okay so
yeah that's the that list that was given to me via public records to back up the memo it's from the completed assessment they did in 2021 where they find a total of 49 months go
but only in more more to [Music] 10 um so yes the question is do we have to um you know go by the idea
that running no that's not the idea but not having this information at hand with the push back in terms of waving because we have no time um really constraint on the commissions and this is not an
excuse this is just a sharing sentiment Um so what do we do with this um right now we have active banks as we've seen and we all hopefully appreciate it um
the the question here is can we are we deciding to move forward or remove them not so some of them are within the list of those one so with the survey being that many of them were some of them were
taken away not but from the remaining ones from 8 to 10 we have several students so the question is do we move forward with them clearly we cannot do it now during the season that has been the conversation we're going to wait
until that's done the idea that we put a month end to that was applied against because we don't know what other sort of might be there and they have even found uh you know that if September might not
be so the idea is that we go and um reassess with specific uh to check the state of the trees but also wildlife credit organization to make sure and there's no
birds that's the next step um so that's my answer well I think that I think we're superseded i think from what I understand that we've been superseded from taking any action when well I guess the nesting when there are nests in trees so I think the first report point
of order is that we've already committed to not not making any advancements on on this item on the item of tree removal until well after that nesting season I guess that kind of extended period where nesting season continue um so I think
we're kind of superseded because if I remember correctly I I may not be so certain correctly but when there's nesting when there's nesting active nesting happening in the trees we're not allowed to touch so we've already got we've already have an app ordinance um
that specifies this correct so so we are not going to be able to touch them the question is we're not going to the idea was that we'll wait until September until end of season so how do we determine that end of nesting season what are the next step this is a
question for the manager what are the next steps to make sure that we follow so that we check for violence on the street before we even consider so mayor if I could so I I had to talk to the u the autobon society had called
me and um they actually say the nesting season ends in in July uh um but most she said sometimes the birds hang around for the month of August they may still be be around so she said to play it safe
why don't you said September and I said that's fine we exchange emails it's an email we committed that we wouldn't touch any trees till September so what I would ask you agree is that we have someone
forward society themselves um or otherwise themselves in that position of helping um and check that there is actually no nest or nesting sites you know uh
before we do that so we don't just say September but we have someone come forward and or not they don't come out and do those assessments they're reactive um I don't think you need a specialist to decide whether or
not they're not it's an outg Yes investigate third investigate i don't think it's that easy because um that's the reason other um is that it's best to to make sure to
check now i don't know exactly what they suggest but there's a lot of information by look up and see if they're yes or you know to decide on um so I would like to find out and that's what I'm asking from all of you
as a direction to the manager if we can find the appropriate predator organization again and I said it this way because I don't know um clear this before we determine that September is the month just to be safe because maybe if it's July I don't want to be put in
the situation again but September September we go and oh there's like who said September so it should be fine or nobody's seen it and two days later someone sees another bird coming back so let's find the appropriate source on who
meets the town i will give and pass along all the information I've received as recommendations to the manager um you all have contact with the same people um you know I know other you have as well so just find someone that can clear that
uh sort of start or um reinitiate uh the the trees that we have if that's what we decide so that would be my number one not sure who that person would be i I did after I heard suggestions i
did my research i tried to find agency that would do it to do it uh it's not a common thing i find that that standard procedure for them it seems like it's more of a reaction when you find your question you investigating and
make sure he took care of the violence um no so let me let me give you an idea the streets are two story you're not going to be from the floor up to be able to determine that none of us can proven that so I'm going to give an
example that actually my husband was telling me about working out of his workplace um drones who are stand up there they actually do go into their heights and they do several steps in
order um do you have a protocol for training our trees before the hurricane and checking that there is wild is there the same season so is there something in that follow um I I would have to check i can't that
I don't know off hand um anything within ourselves that will determine I know the outcomes in terms of power lines but that's that's yeah but so here we are right we have no manual or no uh
instructions as to what are these steps to follow um I've spoken to a lot of people and now those exist as what needs to be done which we don't have in place that would serve there our
workforce and our manager but also our public work so we need to rely on people that know about this saying that we can solve it it's not enough so I just want to Yeah go ahead
so um how much of the 120,000 have you spent so far um I think approximately 90,000 Okay uh so that means we have what how many how many months before September
april May June July September six six months five months okay um what's the status uh with North Miami as far as them picking up some of this cost how do they feel about that how do you
assess that uh yeah i started with mayor and he was rejected he said put it together and send it to me and move back forward now one day he command on this 5% we will pay for X no he did but he hadn't sent the documentation it was shortly after that that everything stopped because because of the so I
spoke to this what how do they feel about the specific people i mean is this something on their radar is this something that we're bringing to them is this If if we said "Hey look we we we've decided we
don't want to take down the trees is our planning going to take down the trees?" Is that something that we can discuss with them it hasn't because the resolution that we have with them is basically shared maintenance of that space so we share we
shared thinking on that area um so did not convince me that if you don't do it we will okay and and nor did I ask to say we want you to take care of all of it it was more along the lines we had a contractor that was working with us i think it was more in the frame of I
would I would like to find out you know if that's just even something on their radar obviously it's on our radar and I know they just trees I think north but were they also mix okay so
another thing that I wanted to bring up just so everybody knows obviously I didn't know much about Australian pine until this whole thing started but now I know a little bit about Australia um besides the fact that uh in Florida uh
according to Google uh and AI that knows everything they have um their lifespan is 40 to 50 years now they live they can live a lot longer obviously right they live over 100 years here they've lived over 100 years they have a lifespan like human beings have a lifespan uh trees
have a lifetime right so I think a lot of the trees especially certain clients have are are let's call them senior citizens um having said that there are additional costs not just removing the tree and
planting a new tree I I've also read that they also leech out a certain type of poison into the soil and one of the things that you have to do in order for a tree to flourish is you have to actually remove soil and put new soil um
because that soil is tainted i don't know how much that costs i don't know there's so it's not just you know we take out a tree down um having said that I wanted also to respond to a couple of things that were said today so this is nothing new folks you've been talk this
commission this city has been talking about the removal of of of Australian parties for since since I've been here and um and you know whenever we appear
here life uh safety issues uh that becomes a urgent matter um you know I in in my opinion our prime directive is the safety and security of of our residents first then everything else second right
so you know it was brought to our attention you know as a safety and a security uh issue for having said that um you know I hate to admit it publicly but I only got one a college and
unfortunately that was in in statistics so statistically speaking um there is a much greater chance of people getting hit by a car than getting hit by trees let's be realistic i think that that $120,000 realistically could
have been used in a lot better way to with speed bumps and signage and and and other ways to minimize the danger to our roads you know I I think we kind of rushed through this i think that um you know
because it because it was brought to our attention as a life safety issue we reacted very quickly um and uh and I think that uh there's a much greater risk on our streets than there is from a falling off of people having said that
now going back to the trees that are on 121st Street we've heard from our residents we've heard from the residents of 21st Street um obviously they don't want us to uh to touch the trees until September but I think they're all of them ideally would like to keep the
trees if possible um so what I would suggest uh they might bring we have 6 months 5 months from now to September let's bring in somebody uh a a neutral party whatever
that means you know I I don't know what that means but let's find somebody um to look at these trees and to assess the the health of these trees and perhaps we can do like what Miami Beach is doing i know that they are trimming back those
trees uh not removing them but they're they're trimming them back significantly um and reducing their heights as well so maybe that's something that we can look at um but uh you know we're here yes
public safety absolutely all that good that's that's all fantastic but we're also got we're also here to listen to the residents right and the residents don't want the trees to move and as far as I'm concerned uh if those trees are healthy and we can do something about
bringing them back um then I'm I'm good with that option as well so that goes to my first point of conduct a reassessment of the remaining trees for structural integrity to determine if removal is still necessary the reason I bring it up
like that is because based on the SFM um survey those are um highlighted as a good one so I would like to reassess considering that some of them weren't um and I I just still don't understand
what you know is an eight i can tell you yeah the scale but what does it mean is a seven safer to stay i I I would like this in the assess on
these danger we've assessed all the trees not danger so obviously the trees are degrading at a large rate we talk about beach $141,000 last year on Australian pine
and they lost 11 trees lemon trees were winners had taken out they started their process of of preserving their trees in 2001 24 years and they're still losing trees every every year so they're losing them out it's not linked so what are we going to do we're going to spend
thousands of dollars every year to preserve our trees and we're still going to lose them anyway that's the thing that's that's the problem so it's not like we spend thousands on the streets they never all of a sudden we just went straight up and said we have and let me tell you 140 out
of the budget line how it works if not a third of the budget that makes sense to us for whatever it might but it's it's a lot of money for us for them and we they have phasing plan which is what I brought up
yes down I I with you art I think the exploration of conductive assessment and I would like to know what's working for they're talking about grooming as an opportunity we don't have hundreds of them left and we should make sure there
are in state of being down and we ensure to reserve being one of those options having said that we also have $30,000 what's that we have $30,000 to prove we need to
prove because we we've only spent 90 yes also to clarify respons that are count [Music] talking about assessment
treatment 100% well that would be part of the fracture yeah it sounds if I'm sound like direction which is let's bring someone into Look I I I agree your point appreciate it that it could be more
costly to to continue to maintain them very true um but at this uh at the same time we don't know what level of integrity they have we don't know what cost would even look like to do that so I think the first the first part of the equation is to find out what that looks
like because we don't know it's I don't know if it's going to be the same it's going to be Miami Beach we don't know if it's going to be you know uh within within the budget and uh I think the liability part of it is certainly what is certainly kind of what spurned a lot of this and you know for anyone that
that doesn't doesn't know and I certainly don't need to sound kind of don't it's the lens through which I look at things um you know liability um in this respect is different because let's just say speaking that tree hit that
house a month or another tree comes down to reveal it and they go to the village and they say hey you've known about this for 5 years now negligence turns into gross negligence because you've been on notice that you had to remove them and you did so I'm not saying one way or the other that this is going to sway the decision I'm just trying to provide
context that's the reason this comes up I agree with you but having Yeah if we get a professional race not right now we did have we have right right I but that was some years ago I
think we need to reassess make sure that whatever is there is viable correct uh and then if it is then you know then we look at the the training so I think the first step is is the information the information to to form a complete
picture to make a informed decision and I think that that would be the first step i I will touch on saying that that we as a body have talked about how we don't have the funds to replace these trees and we're driving a safe emergency situation and acting without the plan to
replace the trees as a matter of life safety we know that we have two trees that are dangerous we know the age of the trees and bringing our in is just furthering our situation that comes with budget it is farther from the solution of bringing in native trees that we
support our bird population in a healthy and sustainable environment so bringing the arbur while great and will solidify what two other uh vendors have already told us that they're dangerous you're getting farther from the solution which is healthy mature meal sure i think the
point too that we that we want not to ignore is the preeemption argument is that even if we let's let's say we don't condition but there's this I think if I understand the county ordinance or law however you want to phrase it that it
preempts our decision that we cannot we cannot do anything to that tree while there are native nest in it are you able to I'm not familiar with that provision okay but if there is something in the county ordinance that say something to that effect it would likely pre-enter
your act so I think you know I don't know I wasn't doing anything now for September sure so to our point we have time so you know why don't we have the manager look into
for us having someone come in to to look at the integrity of those remaining trees um and see if there is even a group that exists that can come in and look into native habitat i don't know there may not be right green but I would say as far as we've probably done we're
going to talk about a registered inspirations for wildlife every time we train we have to look not just at these big trees but all the trees we have in this village right bird nests aren't built on tree trunks they're built on limbs we turn a lot of limbs in this
village for power lines burn operations just today you know I was in front of my house turning tree we do a lot of tree so we have to come up with legislation that's sustainable budget for every tree not just if you have Australian plants so I don't see hiring a consulting firm
every time FPL is out here trimming trees that would be very expensive very quickly but is there a way to engage with experts to come up with a document that our public works can be following and say this is this is signed off by wildlife experts following this for inspection of the trees prior to
being that think of this sustainable for our wildlife as well as our budget hiring every And we can do that for the feed tree but what about every a lot of trees you have to think of this for
everybody so just so we go in order Brian if you don't mind we'll get to the legislation portion on this one specifically i think there is some sense that we will reassess for structural integrity and
right now make [Music] sure and come September we can contact the manager who is there um and that it is safe to remove this
case we see decision um but to your point we have enough time in the meantime to explore opportunities uh and other things that might be done around the county well to that point too I think the county would help that the discussion
that I have with the chief of going back to forget is the urban forest tree division you know they they have directives and they have a lot of issues that are aimed at Australian clients specifically so I can have a discussion with him uh which I was planning to do anyway to see if we could get them to
come out to a meeting to talk to us about this because I've heard come from them and not get totally from me um but ask them about their service in coming up and seeing if they do that because he did suggest to me over the phone that one of the workounds that they they've seen deployed with Australian clients is
the trim uh but leaving it at a height that the apparently the nesting bird is like a certain height of of a tree leaving it at a certain height but trimming it back so it poses less of a danger but still having the space for the finest he recommended that as a
potential I don't want to say workound is probably not the way to say but work so he suggested that there are some alternatives um so I'll re-engage with them and see if I can hopefully get them to come up to us appreciate that um I did speak to James something as well and he did share very very knowledgeable
person and uh again that's why I know there are in place we are not going to we're going to go for those who already have it and put it in place if we can get the public department so John knows in the future how to
follow and how to check for life and future commission so that is checked the next one was establishing a monitoring schedule to track potential safety concerns until the removal of embryos or
may resumed after season now if they have been highlighted in danger they're still saying they no homes around them there's no hazardous sign around them i don't know if you should provide um
posture notice to residents that are around there um as a way to maybe not only liability but um you know communication to you know what's going on why are we waiting on the students that are potential to be harmful and
they could potentially fall and we decided to wait until September to so is there something that can be done to you know advice of this or you don't see that
I I don't know what form that would take I think first it will be in the shape of communication I think I have that as the next point but um making you relevant on our website and ensuring that everybody's aware that we have plans so we're currently working in progress as we work with the county as we work with
different organizations that there is a street in particular that we want to make sure everybody knows being reviewed for safety i think we need we ought to put something out there um for residents as well maybe even in the site uh with
tape or some combs that might have a If I have a pure code takes into the website I mean it could be easy access to read for whoever is walking at least to acknowledge that we are letting them know is that something that is doable
suggested Albert is a lot of for us to ask the village to engage on yeah commissioner to answer your question so you had you had talked about going out and doing an assessment now so if we do go out and do an assessment now and they
determine that those trees are are eminent to come down we cannot remove them until September so I don't I don't I don't see the I I think that puts us in a in a horrible position liable
position so I I would suggest not doing that you know would you not not let people know that well I I I wouldn't I wouldn't go out now and do an assessment of them no no not at all because I think that puts the the village in a very of
the of the eight trees that remain in the town right how many of those trees have activeness do we know that is it two three is it four no I think the the rest of that street has has have has have birds in them so we all of the
trees the Australian pines yes so we we had committed not to to touch those so because they have active nest we can't touch them anyway yes yes okay so we can't touch them any my point here is well we look into are we going to cut
them after or not are we going to prove them or not comments in September we're not going to do anything now should we at somehow uh to the expense of the village notify communication means that happen but should we put um some sort of a cy
around that or we don't know as of right now we we don't know it could be dangerous well there could be there could be a lot of dangers right I mean walking across the street is dangerous right but the point is that we don't
have the knowledge to be able to give give you know to say to say to tell somebody "Listen there's a tree that could potentially fall in front of your house but right now there's a herring nesting and we can't touch it until we don't have the knowledge we don't we need to have the knowledge in order to
be able to Yeah no I persist yeah we're already under i think Brad there you go i just wanted to check that was a thought um yes what I'm hearing is
that everybody's saying that the AS are affected so I mean why are we talking about we have to cut them cut them down yet he's saying those eight trees areffect you know site question because they're currently you know I I still like I said I want to make my comments after because this
discussion tonight is very good i am proud that this commission brought it up anyway so my point is how many of these other nest possibilities that we would have on the other 37 trees that were cut down proof that there wasn't
well forward so say but right now we know the trees remaining that we're discussing nest we can't touch them so I think is okay so number two we nothing we can do all right engage with the certified wildlife organizations confirm when the nesting
season has officially ended before our efforts if that's our plan to go so are we in agreement that then contact organizations come September and we'll check if that is our plan to follow all right think that's great so thank you
anything else related to next on this eight you guys want to talk about this not for the state in your direction as they currently are we're not so ju just just so that I am clear yes
so we are going to bring somebody in to inspect the trees right um and the last inspection was 2019 [Music] go ahead but are there by the way are there
trees on that street identified as as uh dangerous trees how many how many of those [Music] two and so those two uh have nests or
have they got [Music] res Yeah yeah let me let me just say that the concern was that they're hanging out in all the trees so if you if you start cutting down one you're
going to disperse the entire flock and you know they may go and not come back so that's so just to do our due diligence in my humble opinion I would just bring in another arous not another arborist i actually always
suggest that and have them look at all the trees again and if it's a 10 and it must be a 10 and a half by now right um but again we can't do anything until September regardless nesting birds on those trees
and whatever um but let's just cross our tees and go out right and then if they find that eight of them are are still good uh and you can move them back I suggest that we do that i'll do that so
I want to be so I'm aware yes so this is what I understand the direction is from the commission is that um in August we'll we'll hire somebody to go out and look at in August to
assess those eight trees and make a determination what uh what their uh I would do in September if that was the end of this well if if well I don't think they're going to go up in the tree they're just going to look at the base
of the tree and look at the at the uh structure going on they told you sate and then when you're going to send someone next month to make sure you're ready we'll just wait until this no just an armor to detect the
structural integrity of of the tree so we'll do that in August and come back and and give you a report at the September convention meeting about the integrity of the of the trees and then h have a discussion on and decide what you want to move move forward with and then
have have an arborist in September look at those uh uh trees that you identified to come down that they are free of any nesting okay we also have the county to assess their
treatment as well yes and and finally find out what other options could it be to retain the Australian to influence part of the conversation such as bringing them just right so once the integrity is
determined if there's any ones that can be saved we'll talk about that i will tell you that a lot of these trees whether their trunks are good or not have really bad you know damaged limbs and those for sure have to be removed
right so pruning is going to have to happen regardless of whether the tree spot or not and some of them were even highlighted on that was found on the contract termites um you know very condition I
think those might be some of the ones we're talking about again we'll be properly all right so next point uh resident communications will uh provide regular updates through the village communation channels to ensure residents
are aware of the status and reasons for that delay I think we're due to come back after we present notice that that was happening we never heard anything else but we need to let people know what's going on we need to let them know well there is halted we did find this is
our action plan um and if there nothing you know something else comes forward um uh clearly outlined the balance between public safety concerns and environmental protection is part of the communication it's not just the fact that we are you
know not doing due diligence which means that we're highlighted as danger is the fact that we also found those wildlife so just coming forward with all the information we found considerations for the last if you don't mind because that's going to be a
little but balancing while consideration public safety I was wondering so the person is already being raised we heard one of the members come forward today right Albert everybody was yes and so we also I have a meeting with our
um our grant manager coming up and the chair or one of the members of the of the committee has asked to sit in on that meeting just so we could talk about any grants that are out there for the replacement of trees and we're I I'll let you know the the
result of that meeting okay i did look forward that I think we all pass in that was related to the placement plan on retreat we already discussed that i had a lot of it engagement with community with specialists i think that's what
people want to see happen so um I'm happy to hear that it's already break is there a deadline did they mention something about when we expect to have some sort of feedback from them as to what the steps are from from the the
parks and support no I I I attended the last meeting i'm trying to attend all those meetings so I can they send a report discussions and I know they're coming before meeting next week yes and I think that um legislative so here is the part that
I've got so much information some different from what does and you know Seattle a lot of different prov Um there is a lot that I need to process
and feed uh but I wanted to you know I wanted that kind of family protection while
action there is an emergency protocol um we need to have these things in writing so the next time we manage council we expect them you know uh theories report to be included the hours report seem to be current in the last year the hour
reports you know have to highlight scale of consideration you know how we face the different so that we don't go through this um the other point I have here was 39 village ordinance
tree so what we currently have for bird sanctum doesn't specify first uh nesting season it doesn't specify what month it need to happen um and a question for Brad is an ordinance for the
[Music] department that next week USAC USA even though we have a flag they are out of
compant one of the requirements if you pass a tree or a tree or I think that would be a great opportunity right now including precaution outlawing the idea of maintenance during nesting season because that's also preparation for
hurricane season as well right and so I think there's some information sharing with other municipalities and how they balance that because we still need to turn trees in told at me now you can't come turn trees during February to September they would tell you four
months to turn trees and I got from the rest of South Florida too so um the first two things I would want you in terms of legislation I would say that any check that is up to up to date from the last 12
months that we uh and the second those two things we don't have um how we put it and where we put it I would ask that you to work with the attorney to put together a lab to bring
it as a discussion item again um so this is not something to look at that would merge a lot of what I've got and you can bring it your thoughts and your amendments to it and from there start but those are the two main
objectives that I went for inclusion on a current ordinance or again resolutions whatever those things then we can talk to your point um additional steps to pronings that goes maintenance and daily
operation uh but I'm talking about sense of sance tree is very specific on removals and they want more than just want for a moment um
thank you um so I can tell you that and haven't done an exhaustive search but um Commissioner and I have talked several times tried to do some research on on various ordinances most of the
ordinances that I've been able to to find especially as a specifically Australian they deal with development so a property being developed or adjacent property being development developed excuse me and those Australian pines
exist there are certain regulations requirements it's fencing they're all the whole all but um with regards to your own legislation I just want you to keep in mind there there is a Florida statute which specifically prohibits and I'm
just going to read it very quickly it prohibits a local government from requiring any notice application approval approval permit fee or or mitigation for the pruning trimming or removal of a tree on a residential property so we're talking about residential property which is basically
a village um if the property owner possesses documentation from an arborist certified by the ASA or Florida licensed landscape architect the tree poses an unaccess excuse me unacceptable risk to persons or property
so there is a some limitation and I don't know what Tree City USA I've looked at a little bit exactly what what they require as far as an ordinance there is a preeemption the limitation of the Brad if I may I think I think what
commissioner is saying is city yes not private I just wanted to be clear okay yeah private is private we I think we're all aware of the situation but she talking about city Um so so those two things I would like
to work with Brad discuss it as how best you want to explore passing an ordinance
USA that time bunch all these include wildife protections in that it's the same topic include wild protections are risk of findings in two since you're bringing this into
agenda and I'm talking about the attorney you know us going into the sunshine or anything it's a good opportunity maybe for you to suggest merge in wear both ideas well I I have
Commissioner's item as well so I can follow up when we discuss we can incorporate what's needed for city USA and that's not a violation of sunshine city USA we have until the end of 2025 to get compliance so remind
okay all right so then I'll bring that into um and I can quite frankly I can talk to both of you separately as well because I don't relay information back two of you excuse me guys i don't know if I can
talk now i think based on the discussion that I'm sorry yeah well sorry i No I understand we we're we have very limited time left we have a lot still to do here and we have an entire second discussion point i apologize but we we pass public
comment um oh you can send you can you can send us all emails our emails are on the website you can send us emails and we will reply to you or if you stick around late I'd be happy to talk to you after because I think for whatever you are talking I think that I know the path to
I'd be happy to talk to you after shooting an email thank you very much i appreciate jumping in okay so are the legislation yes okay the two main there's a couple more
legislation legislating around communication to the residents that are most effective um I've read a lot of ordinances and talked about previous I think is actually what we required from residents there is three per [Music]
um and you need to time to let people know that this is happening so I think in the future first thing is people within the 100 ft of radius example one of the example is that but we'll see what does uh needs to be put need to be
contacted and to be knock on the door hanging you know a door hanger um provided you reached out in order to let them know the work is coming a street there closures um so this is not a service so that will be I see
with his hand on this is one issue and this is more of an administrative issue um so I know Commissioner Hanzo asked for the commission's approval to work with me i would ask you not to designate her as the representative of of the commission so
no no i'm just what I'm suggesting is that this was Commissioner Amso's item that she that she wanted to present she's going to present to the plan in the form of of a proposed ordinance for you all to consider as a collegial body and then I will work with
her singularly and individually um in preparing that proposed ordinance which is singular item once you designate her to speak on behalf of the commission it implicates sunshine so
that's why I'm just cautioning you if you do that then might have to speak well then I think that the way that you suggested probably the appropriate way to go about thanking that yeah okay so back to the notice notice it the notice item and budget application
consideration and other things that I read interested in some is the city is responsible to put a fund against it so we have to take this free due for an emergency due for treatment uh concerns for root systems issues
whatever might be automatically that is a $2,000 to be put into a fund from it could be reserve it could be the public works it would be administration what it does is just make sure that the budget is is there and not spent for any other
uh items business is sort of a priority again these are ideas I'm throwing I don't know how it would look like in terms So how do we put this in writing an ordinance and and effect you know for us to to to add value and to protect um
our wildlife and our our canopy but it's an idea part of the insurance yeah you know I'd be certainly interested to see if that work it way into an ordinance for state USA um I don't know if it's the case I don't know if you know while we're here talking about it or if it's
something that we bring back up USA requires a budget of $2 per capita spent on tree maintenance a year that don't identify just as tree plantings they say it's tree drains tree plantings tree removals it's it's money that goes
towards streets $2 so there is some budget requirement so by this ordinance we have to ensure that we comply with that um $2,000 for a tree is not pretty no I'm just making that up i don't know what and we do have a tree permit removal a tree removal permit ordinance
in place for private property yes yes um so that's I want to make sure that what we're asking residents to do we call ourselves there's going to be preemptions as emergencies that you know urgent matters as well but you know we we got to provide by the same dates of
notification we have process in terms of investment [Music] for so I'll this part I just want to what I will bring as a draft and then you guys leave me to it I was going to say you want to include sort of suggestions what we're going to be
working on that I will touch on like communication things completely agree with you communication is a big part of this and I think it could be better um but I will almost caution changing something because I think communication is village as a whole could be better
and I think that we're almost rapidly approaching the idea of a communication ordinance that we agree on that we give to a manager that as a manager execute and we defend because I hear a lot of get an email blast and you get a this and get a that i think
that we need to as a body legislate for a whole solution not just peace meal this problem and that problem that fix it as a whole and something that I talked about during our strategic planning session is a communications plan that fixes all of these problems going forward so it's not that I don't
want to fix this problem i do but I want to fix it as a whole for the future stop pointing fingers in in leaks let's fix the the piping system fix the communication system you're you're preaching to the buyer i think we've talked about it way too much uh we need
to I'm just going to be specific to this i want communications related to tree removal to be announced to those most effective when it comes to education as a village as a whole couldn't agree more with you and that's when we talk about the answer
the second day i know you weren't there we talked about it and the manager agreed with us and said that a communications plan was something he was going to work on next fit into our strategic plan or something in our strategic plan agenda as well so it's something we're working on and we need we need to do better but we think we
need to identify how we do better and then we send them so that was the end of my item i just appreciate everyone coming forward this is a very sensitive um thing to discuss for many reasons and not Everybody's
going to be happy with how we reacted and uh how we are moving forward maybe but uh the idea to have this meeting is still allow the space for the conversation certainly presented a good opportunity to be better
okay first of all I'm glad that we had this discussion tonight that's why I didn't make my comment about it because I wanted to hear this discussion that we had tonight thank you Commissioner because I think it's very important i think this is the process that we should have done before this so my comment is
going to be about the process that wasn't done and that we should have done so that's why I save my comment for last i stand deeply concerned before you today not just as a representative of this community but as a resident who
read values transparency accountability and promises we make to one another manager assured us that our checks will be conduct conducted before any true move that was not just words it was a
commitment to responsible stewardship of our environment yet we There are now numerous reports that critical steps were ignored village manager children allow trees to be cut down without proper inspections yet the evidence suggests that the only tree inspection
is done about the trees was done by a tree service not an independent environment expert if that is the case then I feel we as a commission community will miss if that is the case then the promises
that were made to this community both i for one refuse to accept that i understand that public safety is a priority the safety and responsibility actions are not mutually exclusive this process was carried out in a matter that
lack transparency and frankly raises questions for whether another motive was at play instead of thoughtful planning and phase carried out we lost trees destroyed habitat and disturbed the very
bird populations that define our village nature of it has come to my attention that not only were trees cut down wildife sustenance there was also growing concerns about speed of movement i have
been told that to cut down trees the whole way so quickly to hide them from the residents so I may not know trees were healthy i never had the opportunity to see their condition myself raises serious questions about whether many of
them were in fact healthy or sick this is true then we must ask was the removal rush to prevent scrutiny or the given accurate misleading information about necessary and cutting down new
streets this situation demands full transparency because right now the limit is made to hide the truth in the community furthermore I have received reports that payment process for this project was handled in an unusual manner
specifically was informed special accommodation was made to take Joe in different ways and others if that is true is even more red flags i want to know public deserves
know process different from standard procedures and if so why we also need complet documentation on any wildlife organization that was consulted including when and how they were contract recommended
recommendations they provided and whether those recommendations are followed this community deserves accountability and I will not rest until we get the answers we are holding as a professional city manager I would expect that this project be completely through
structured process one to ensure this removal when necessary but also time for replacement we should have taken steps to preserve what makes our community special instead we left the destruction and unanswered questions in the choice
let me be creative we must hold those responsible account we must demand full transparency on why and how this was allowed to happen and we must act swiftly to restore what we lost not just the trees but the trust of our community
i call my fellow commissions to stand with me we are always heading residents to the environment to protect into the future thank you well I certainly think that five are such a lengthy discussion tonight we
wasn't accountable before I stay here tonight [Music] so we know there's one additional discussion item oh I'm sorry i would just ask we could take a five minute break before we go to
the next item sure thank you recess I guess five minute break five minute recess yeah well I mean I assume What I thought was Yeah yeah no by the way I'm not going to be here for
the evening i wish we Oh great okay everybody be sitting except from Brett i'm sitting okay great so our recess our five minutes maybe eight minute recess is uh included so let's go ahead and move on to our last evening we got an
hour so um right can I can I say something really quick before no does she mind i don't mind okay i just want to put my point out there and then we can discuss all at least choose one um if I just want to make sure that you
guys understand for for my for me uh I wouldn't hire a police chief until we have a permanent manager um I think that the current uh structure that we have is working um and so we have a permanent manager in place i wouldn't even consider hiring a a a full chief because
I think it we got to give the courtesy to whomever we hire as a manager to uh hire their their police so that's just my two cents and we can talk about now for Thank you so you just went straight to the conclusion that's it yeah um so I
think we'll get there but the truth is that the um acting in manager uh has the same power than the village challenger to actually change the or the organization is better for the bill so
what art is saying that we might you know he would like that to happen we actually don't even have to have this discussion because the truth is he could do that at any time okay so um it's within his power to do that he has the
ability to change whatever he thinks is best given the budget that we have the objectives that we have and the feedback he gets from our um but the police department in particular has been center of attention not the best attention for years now um
and I think we all want to be gay from our company but here we are so in the last meeting I actually did put this together before our um the day before we met for
March i requested it [Music] included walk item and it would deny or not do that the charter does say that all items are in case of emergency we
have kind of not followed specifically that um the part of the charter that says that we have been allowing walk on items several times uh in my opinion this was a very important subject to bring up it was more of an immediate or
emergency more than emergency uh but our charter does not provide for urgency it only provides for emergency am I saying that right it's your procedure and rules but yes you're correct right so um the rest of the commission well you are not
included at the time i decided this wasn't a topic to discuss because it's lengthy and has several topics and I am uh didn't I I didn't expect that night I was going to see the sort of unfortunate comments that was forward and how the
night sort of ended up happening i was surprised to see that forward um I am not going to talk in any way or matter about whether to be a ongoing as it was advised by an attorney that will stay
away from that um and this has nothing to do actually u with that this is what Art was saying our inability in a way to decide what the manager does with staff but in this case I want to have that conversation as to what we think needs
to be done uh considering that we have an inter manager decision so a department that is quite sensitive for the long term even beyond his tenure with us if that's the case so
um I'm going to read it just for background the village in part is undergoing a leadership transition with the police department following the resignation of chief police seal on February 31st in response that during time informed recognition that the part
acting captain had been hired and appointed under the leadership of the acting chief for sale as part of the in structure additionally we were informed that the job posting for the chief of police decision was to be published on relevant industry websites as a next
step to ensure stability and well- definfined strategic direction it is essential for the interim village manager to articulate his vision for the department um for the more as the selection of the permanent village manager starts to happen we want to make
sure that we have the right moving forward or the next Um I also have to say the reason for me to bring it forward is because I did advise um art for making this project i said I think we'll be it's my suggestion
that you communicate this openly that we have a transition going on sort of to prevent sort of a backlash of people that would wonder like what's going on and I think I was one of them and I was asked directly why wouldn't you say you know what's the next plan nobody's
talking about it there's a commission that say you have the discretion to send an email which I rarely do and the reason is if you heard me enough is because the communications fall under the um perview of the manager it's one of the things we all pay for and we need
to be informed and biased that's what I believe in um and in this case the truth is I didn't have an answer i don't know what the next step of the appointment is i don't know what is intended to be i just know someone was hired part- time
and there is an acting um chief uh in the position and in the meantime and I'm concerned about that so the only way that we can actually talk about this h is this meanwhile the post said you know I don't know if it happened or not and
that's part of what we're going to talk to over about but um this is the only opportunity that I have and when I asked for the opportunity to share with the village the people was straight up no and that the next step will be to post
his uh position that for me it's a red flag like not not because he's not within the authority to do that but the feedback is free of no and we're moving forward is what I wanted to slow down for a moment so our I think the conclusion that I'm going to go and jump
to that is very in the same lines as you would say it's just that we needed to have this in order to decide that happen because otherwise and by charter he does he does have he has he has the right to actually but as smart as Al is um I think if we had
consensus up here saying "Hey I don't think it's a good idea that you be hiring the uh the new police chief uh and if he wants to apply for the permanent position I think he's smart enough to know that maybe it's not a good idea for me to hire this person until uh I get the job." But that was in
the email that I received the email that we received was that the position was to be close to the following week yeah so yeah and and I and I and I understand what you're saying but I just think that uh it's not right um because you know if
maybe Al is going to be the manager maybe Al's not going to be the manager and in a month or two or three we're going to have a new manager and they may say "Well I don't like the person that this person hired now we're back to square." So I I personally would would would suggest
that we just all come to it and says "Look let's we have a permanent manager in place before we hire the next so can I make a recommendation really well or an inquiry i guess really quick are not withstanding mr manager could you give
us an update on on what the status of So I know Commissioner Her mentioned that there was communication that the job was going to be posted what was the job posted or was it kind of like a process yeah I I think I sent that information out to you that all of you to say that
the uh position was posted i um it was posted on the um Florida Police Chief's Association was posted on our website it was posted on uh Florida League of Cities it was posted on the uh Florida
City and County Managers Association more more more importantly though uh the management position has also been posted correct yes yes i I was informed that yes and the deadline for that is April 11 is that correct yes I was informed that's correct we we've kind of the
clerk and I have kind of kept the manager out of the loop because he was gonna he's going to be a candidate but yes the brochure has been out i think madame clerk had indicated that she had posted i'll let her tell you where she posted it but you're correct um
applications are due April 11th and then madam clerk will um we'll vet those applications or go through the process that was described in the brochure and that you just it's posted uh the league of cities the Miami day county managers
association has it they don't have a posting place but it's been sent to them the Florida uh county city managers association and I'm assuming the applications are flying in or
maybe not really not I I've gotten phone calls and inquiries but not a whole lot of applications some not a lot okay so we have an understanding of where the process currently sits so
So what's the next so um when when the position became vacant I thought it was I thought it was we had a need to fill that position because and uh in a timely manner
because I think uh for the for the sake of the police department you don't leave that uh position vacant for too long so we did post it and it closes at the end of the month um at at that time I'll I'll make an assessment on what what the
next steps are but I I had I had before this meeting I had uh discussed with um some of you not most of you about about the process that you you had experienced last time and said what what what did
you not like about the process last time and um most of you said that you weren't involved in the process last time you had no input and all of a sudden you were told uh Chief Steel is the our new police chief and had very very little
involvement so I I wanted to make sure that the residents had a say in the process i want to make sure the police department has a say in the process i want to make sure that this board has input in the process too and that and that you're all aware of the steps that
are being taken to fill the fill that position al can I ask you a question so the current leadership the current leadership team that you have in place um how is that working for you how do
you feel about them uh and how they're leading the department so our our our current acting chief uh is doing a great job but he has no desire to um be the police chief and I think he would love to go back to his prior
position and uh and and take off the hat of the police chief you know he he understands what it it entails it entails a lot of responsibility dayto-day and that's something that you got to consider and putting him in that
position and keeping him in that position for how long uh our our current captain that's is full times uh has expressed an interest in the department he's done an excellent job continues to do an excellent job at daily he has
almost 40 years experience as a police officer and has prior police chief experience so he's a great asset to to this to the village so um those there's two other positions that uh the captain the internal captain
for IIA we're not going to fill that position i don't think that position had much input in the city uh I was told he was part of the ever at the police department um and there the other part-time capital too i think it's
streamline that process that's the change in the organizational chart so so here's my concern guys my concern is that you know we we're continuing to be on the news for not good reasons right and and honestly especially when it
comes to our police department we need to get out of the news we there's no reason for this village to be experiencing the things that it has experienced in the past i think a lot of that goes back to the leadership of the person that sits at the end of this
table um so having said that my concern is we hire a chief tomorrow whenever uh Al's not the manager a new manager comes in now this man that manager doesn't like the chief and he wants to
fire the chief bring in a new chief and here we are back in the news again right so I'm not comfortable with that I I I want to steady the ship and the way we're going to steady the ship is First we have to put somebody in that job that
is a great manager that brings the background and the knowledge to lead and then we need that person to be able to hire their team so that's my so could I respond sure
so um the process that I had envisioned would be for um myself to appoint a committee of of five people uh a a current police chief or a a past police chief uh someone from
the Miami day uh county's police chief association and then three residents and those residents would be I would put this out there now to say there's any residents that would like to be on the committee to please contact me so they can sit on the committee and those those
people we're looking for residents that are longtime village uh residents that have someone in law enforcement or have some dealings with law enforcement and have some background with law enforcement and have you know that kind of that kind of knowledge and then have
that committee we have I've gotten two applications of as I was sitting here we have some now 17 applications and and start reviewing those applications to see who they would like to uh to interview um and then based on the
qualifications you know that we've have determined and then for that that committee also to last time the village manager made up the questions i would like the committee to determine the questions for the interview process and
then give those share those with with the board and see if anything else you would like to to add in those questions and then start narrow it down to to the applicants that they would like to interview and let them uh start the interview process and then narrow it
down to the top three candidates and those top three candidates uh would would uh meet individually with the board board members and then have a night where they would uh meet uh make a
presentation before the uh the village residents a meet and greet and then a night where they would meet with the uh police officers as many as we could get in on a night so a meet and greet and then have a and then I I I could obtain
feedback so that that's a process that I think would go way until until uh probably uh at the end of April or or maybe even even into May and at that time you hopefully you'll have made a selection on who the city who the next
city manager would be the village manager would be so they can make a determination out of those those final three candidates and I think what my hope is to be is that those final three candidates whoever they whoever they are
um that any one of those three candidates the commission the residents and the uh police department will be happy and and and fully support that person think your idea about what you're doing
about committee it's a good idea and I like and but I do agree with what commissioner said we should pick new chief new city managers but but at least when you explain the committee that would be based upon the new city manager and take
it from the city so I like the idea of I think that we should wait as far as making the city man I mean chief who we have from so I for me I'm going to step back
um my my question is about who is currently in the orchard for the police department the question being some residents asking do we have police officer how many do we have there were people resigning in on the last uh
meeting uh live um what does it mean to the safety what does it mean to the traffic efforts we had in place what does it mean to the budget to have a part-time captain what does it mean to the budget to have a position out there that is pending negotiation on salary
when we have a salary already established so all of these questions are very open and hard answer and I'm aware of that i am more comfortable feeling the whole process to be under a new manager than defining a process for
hiring the person now and leaving him with three candidates to choose from i think the next manager may very well bring forward some potential uh you know contacts employee they've worked before that have been recommended there might
be a process they follow or other people to be involved in the comm as much as I think it's a great idea and this council might post it to you about how do we engage with community on this I think that answers that at that point but it could be even an idea for the next
manager if it's not you all to bring forward and connect with from start to end what I wouldn't want to see is given a process that has been defined as someone else to
end up with the chief police and the question that is above that is are we okay until that happens do we have the current staff in order the the processes in place the people in place and the
budget maintain and follow through so that status quo cool can be maintained in terms of safety there are safety in terms of traffic oper operatives are still happening there was so much uh
talked about uh she's steel in December not so much it was March about all the efforts there being in progress and ideas of the things that were happening might as well be everything kind of takes a pause we do the bare
minimum in terms of safety ensuring that everybody feels we are taken care of and the programs might be paused until the new uh chief of police comes in i'm just saying because I don't know what it is but in in in the sense of what you're
describing today as a next step I feel more comfortable having the manager the permanent manager lead that process well let me let me say this with all due respect Commissioner whether before my
name is intram or just manager I'm still the MA manager yeah and I and you were the one who said uh when my contract was being negotiated to make sure that I understood that I had full responsibilities as a whether it was an
interim or a manager i had that same duties under the charter absolutely i you said that yes and and and I I took that and then that was made part of my contract that I had all the duties other than charter whether whether it says
interim or it says manager and I take that I take that very seriously so we we let me let me finish if I could because you raised a very serious question the police department needs to function day in day out and as was said
here tonight that's one of the major functions of this this village as a 40-year resident I know more more than anybody how important it is that we have a qualified leadership at the top of of
of the police department and I I think in in the 48 years I h have been here that those there was very few years that we had quality leadership as in the police department and our police officers deserve the very best they are
the lowest paid police officers in all Madam County when I got here that was my my uh commitment to them to the full-time officers that I was going to do everything I could do to raise those
their salaries and I still intend to do that uh I can only do that by cutting costs otherwhere other places and that was reducing the cost that the the the fees that I I saw the cost that was going out the out the door with our
offduty detail offduty assignments to for our for our reserve officers having take-home cars and having our our part-time officers have take home cars so that's why I immediately pulled back on that and and that was a huge savings
for our our officers and you know I think they are we have some very dedicated committed officers we have one officer I think's been here like 20 years he he had tons of opportunities to leave but he stayed here you know and
made made that commit commitment and uh that's been my commitment whether I'm an interim or the village manager I'm going to make that commitment to do the very best for that for the police department and that's on a daily basis
so yes I'm I'm aware i was the first one to know that you have all the powers what I wouldn't I wasn't expecting the chief of police to leave under circumstances left um having us in the news for the third time in the past five
years and having that additional you know kind of blast meetings um people were quing again life and the concerns of the residents are very valid so you might have as priority to make sure that our staff is properly taken care of i
got to make sure that I am the voice for the residents and the concerns is I I haven't heard a word it's the first time I hear you say that you want to make sure the salaries are up to what they need i'm not disagreeing in any way i'm
just saying you have a plan we need to share it we need to communicate it we need to communicate with the commission wly so it's transparent people ask questions about it um because there is a give and take as you're saying in order to be able to do that you have to
dismantle operation that is going that you saw this best um we need to put that forward in a way that can um rely the transparency but also the assertiveness that we are doing the
best we can with the budget that we can for what's best for our residents so I I I in any way matter wouldn't doubt that our police officers are amazing like you said in any way I haven't in any way
said that they don't deserve more um I don't know how that goes we just talk about certain contracts here and there you know once a year um that's for you to figure out all I'm saying is we need to have an open discussion we didn't let residents know what it looks like and
now especially since this came up we lost our chief of police under circumstances ideal we have lost police officers um there is you know um a bunch of cars parked in we don't know what that means that's a question I get all
these racist questions they're very very true to answer and and and effectively we need to answer too so that was part of it i I'm with you you have the power to change as you saw fits best but um I want to put a pause to that because
we're in the midst of trying to figure out who the next person permanent the position might be it could be you it could be someone else that comes forward um but we need to just make sure that we take a moment to understand what the process are at the end in the meantime we're getting applicants
uh based on the posting that you do so I don't know that it is fair i actually don't think it's fair i'll put it that way to hand from one person to the other process halfway and sort of tell the next manager you have you know we've done this so far you have three people
you have to choose from i don't disagree with the idea of engagement i don't disagree with the idea of having a committee i think it's actually what uh I think something like that was explored in the past uh having experts you know from different municipalities and cities come forward i just think it's the
appropriate process and having just to conclude the point again um it's not to put in doubt the current step I just want to know and people that were who I speak to and you know the rest of the commission can speak for themselves is
are we safe we have the same amount of pro we have the same traffic operations we used to have what does it mean to the speeding commitments we put together when budget happened all this is a question mark since February 21st and especially obviously since the beginning
of the month when everything so I think um I want to touch on uh first off and say I don't really start tonight uh this is an emergency response
division they need um if you didn't trust the manager that's sitting at the end of this table to select that and he shouldn't be sitting I totally trust him to make that selection that's sound like a very transparent open process and I don't want to do anywhere
near the the idea that this might not be a charter violation but it rise is pretty close to the gray area of directing the manager on who to hire and when to hire and I would I want to adv [Music] um that being said we need confident
management there's more than enough out there to muddy the waters on whether we had a class and when the last time we actually had it um I getting great candidates great numbers uh it's process that shouldn't be rushed we should start that process and uh a lot of those
questions you have about whether we have the officers on the road whether where the officers are coming from those aren't going to be answered until we get that confident experienced police chief in in that seat so we need to start that process we need to keep that process moving forward to me I'm I'm going to
get 17 the giving the manager direction to pause but I don't want to be any part of that he hire him and he works to it's his decision who he hires have to have his employees to his will I I respect
the charter when it comes to that being said whoever if he does select whoever he selects will understand that in the next week we're selecting a village management or loans or whatever the timeline is they accept the job knowing that every employee that works over
there works at the will of the manager only two employees that work at our will the manager and the village attorney so it doesn't matter if we're like an the village manager can walk in and tell everyone and then work at his will we need to staff that position and
we need to not we're already stressing our staff we're stressing our our police officers and we're not doing the due diligence we need to our residents by ensuring that we have new process forward in a timely manner to say we're going to put a pause on it for
an undetermined amount of time so um I hear you i I don't think the again you know the charter is there and I don't think the manager we're here to instruct them to do opposite this is theception I
turn I think it's import for me to understand how you feel about this and that's why I put this okay um we don't have a chance to talk about this unless it's um I didn't like how it was treated I didn't like getting a no for an answer I just heard it was
no I that raises question trust and transparency that's why um so with that said again to provise for the but is that fair i you know I don't think it is um
and again this is for the manager to take on father you're going to act however best feel you know it needs to happen but I wanted you to hear it in in this setting and so you can all of us can talk about it i don't think it is you know if you put yourself in a
situation and you you knew you're interested in this position you're seeing a possible chief police being hiding in front of you you have no say until the last three people you might want to be like man I wish they give me two more weeks to be part of this i I
think to your point the issue has been provided i just don't know anything else and my question is what else you you you have a very assertive way to to ensure that we everything is happening you know as planned work is as usual just I'm asking to communicate it which is what I
suggested at that at that time just put it out there what does it mean we are we having you know the same sort of traffic details that we used to have um what is the priority for the next four months three months or whenever you know we define this to be the entering process
of leadership entering leadership ship process so my questions are not in any way directing exactly what we do my questions are have that conversation and I think as a whole with four of us agreeing that you don't move forward with the process again it's for you to
choose what to do but at least you cover it and I heard from my fellow commissioners how they thought about so um I had put some questions sort of to guide the conversation I think with John to um the timeline I think it's something
you touch you said by May you were expecting to have at least the steps um do you intend to change the resting plan structure of the police department i know that we have um you make already some changes that a part-time captain
that we have with us what else is happening in terms of structure so I don't know if you saw I sent an LTC out today i don't know if you saw it yet i there was an LTC on the structural changes but um the the
captain is actually a full-time captain um let let me you had talked about um budget concerns also because u some things were budgeted in the in our current budget and whether we
were going to proceed with those budget items and let me bring up the captain so he can talk about uh one of the budget items that were in there about is about accreditation and what this board has been told about accreditation and where we are uh with his assessment of
accreditation and what he's doing about uh getting us accredited i was I was uh fortunate enough when during my tenure with the city of Dorado uh this would be the third police chief I would hire i've
hired two in the past uh one of the ones I hired in Dorado was to just get us accreditation and he it took us two years to do that process and we were u in the process once I put that police chief in place it took us two years but
we were in that process for a period of 10 years before I brought in a police chief that could get us to that accreditation well let me let me I'll turn it over to captain so he could talk talk to you a little about Mr
mayor uh so I came in fire police for four and a half years prior to that I was chief of the police department for 14 prior to that I did 30 and a half years city of Miami executive
assistant senior executive assistant chief of police he fires a commander and I'm going to give the job as deputy chief and uh so in the three weeks that I've been here and I've been observing
and assisting the acting chief in developing a new chart so we can actually give service to the citizens of this village uh the at the same level it was prior to
the incident confirring the previous and that has been the entire time that I've been here been working on that and we got it going immediately u the accreditation as far as the accreditation is concerned what I have seen so
far this police department is nowhere near ready to the the level of of needs that CFA require have not been met as far as I
can see i don't know why this was pushed in the past go forward we are not ready we are not there we're not even close however so this is not uh misunderstood
i am bringing in I was able to get somebody to come in they're going to come in tomorrow and he is a commissioner to a sister city here in Bay County but he does CFA assessments
he is an assessor and he is actively now assisting Homestead PD we just had a brand new chief he's going in there to try to help them also he went ahead and advised me that he would do it for us here i want a second opinion for my own
opinion to bring to you all let know what having said that I don't think he's going to be too probably too far off from where I'm at because he's experienced and he has been involved in accreditation for a long time
i did see that there was $25,000 put into the budget for accreditation issues in this budget i strongly urge you to use that money maybe for something else that is needed at this point because
anybody comes here and tells you that we are ready for accreditation it's not going to happen and I would really hate to spend that kind of money on on an accreditation that we're going to fail and I I won't
do that i I don't want I would I would argue against that um I think it would be embarrassing um I'd rather tell you the truth now so you'll know what we're not going to cuz I I will not
stand up here and be embarrassed and I don't want managers to be embarrassed and I definitely don't want any of you being embarrassed and I think the citizen deserves better as far as that is concerned i don't know anything about what's happened in the past that's had nothing to do with it
all I'm doing is looking at what I have in hand and right now I'm telling you it doesn't drive um were you exposed to the different um programs the chief steel had presented to us in December which ones of those
are to your you know knowledge are ongoing versus you know stuffed or paused or completely well to be honest with you I don't believe anything has been paused the only issue is
is we we we lost the summer reserves i've also heard here that people resigned the only person that resigned was a female reserve officer no actually a part time officer right um and the other person was
a captain that was also part time in a in a reserve the captain's brother who was a reser reserve officer who lived in Orlando right i mean he lived out of out of the county u those were the only
people who live the the I'm sorry that resigned the two brothers and [Music] u the Yeah and so how many people if you can say um we previously had prior to all of this happening in terms of the trolls
every day versus what we have now and if you can talk about traffic specifically and one of the main concerns so Commissioner if I could that that is all explained in the LTC and we'll be happy to sit down with you and with the command staff and go over extensively
with that over LTC and I'm available as well the command staff and meeting individually i think uh there's other issues we would like to talk about tonight but that is fully explained in the LTC if you haven't seen it yet so that was sent today it was sent it was sent this this morning
to have session open be able to ask questions but if you if you think there's no time for for that I understand if there's other press matters you said well I I I would like to talk about safety because you you brought up safety we're 15 minutes away
from from calling the meeting I think it's imperative to make sure that all our residents understand the level of service they're getting now as opposed to maybe a year ago that what they were getting and we're in better shape than we were a year ago and these gentlemen
would agree with me that we are in better shape than we were a year ago so if I captain could you uh tell no Captain A so can you So you you can tell
um as you said there's not nothing has been paused uh no programs have been paused as far as I'm aware based on the meetings that I've had with the chief nothing has been paused the same
full-time vacancies that were there are there now and department continues to run uh without a fault the department is considered a department because of their full-time employees not because of the
amount of reserve right and you you also said that we're trying to get back to basics explain what what you meant by that my my humble opinion okay this department needs to go back to basics and when I say basics is when you when
you look at a department that all these specialized units alleged specialized units that we have that we do not have are manned by reserve officers reserve officers only come in to work 24 hours a month that's the
requirement though it looks nice on paper it looks really good on paper except it's it's not real not real uh so my opinion is this department the culture in this
department unfortunately uh a lot of good officers but the culture is they come here to work out duty jobs and this department became secondary the police department came secondary their main job is to go work
out duties that culture needs to be changed and it's it's hard because there's a lot of money involved in these off duty jobs they make a lot more money working off duty than they are working on it so that's my job to change that
culture i have to change that environment that home comes first home comes first that's not the way they want they need to find a job somewhere else that's my hope and I think everybody in this
village would agree that um home comes first and then as far as the security of the city uh it is the same as it was prior uh we
still depend we have 17 now 17 reserves they're coming in they're putting in their time they're helping us um the managers graciously was able to go ahead and and help you make a full-time detective we
didn't have a full-time detective in this police department can't run a police department without a detective to follow up on crimes there's a report of crime i need it to be followed up i can't depend on a guy that's coming in two weeks from now
to work 24 hours need to know that's what the citizens here in this city expect i'm sure that's what we expect also any one of us can be victims we did approve if I'm not mistaken during budget season didn't we approve the half
of the detective of the request of [Music] um so I I hear what you're saying several changes that need to happen and you are in the midst of putting this will be or as a community or the
commission at least I'm asking as a commission first um be shown or chart I mean there was a extensive or chart or if uh you saw the presentation from Mark Steel of all the people that are under
um the police department sure please um and I think it's important that we we see that we understand it um to answer your question Commissioner we're trying to make some changes to the website so that each department uh
organization in charge will be on the website so everybody could see it so you know there's a lot of change things that need need to be changed a lot of things that need to be fixed and when I came in uh in October I said I
pointed out that the the city needed help yeah and I think you all agreed and it it couldn't be it wasn't a fix overnight that so slowly I'm trying to make some changes and uh I I'll be sending out a report in April to say
here's here's the projects that we've completed in the first six months it's October to say for each department what projects have been completed and then what what are we trying to work on for for the rest of the fiscal year but let me let me take this opportunity now to
call up our uh acting police chief so he can he can tell you uh and I let let me say this about our acting police chief he could have he could have walked away and said the same thing i I don't I
don't want any part of this but he he stepped up to the plate when I when I told him that uh Chief Steel was being relieved of duty was he interested in the position and as uh as the interim and he said yes and I I really do appreciate him taking that leadership
role and stepping up the plate and he's done an excellent job and uh and it hasn't been easy for him he's been attacked because he did take the position he's been attacked at that last meeting as he was walking out the door
and he was attacked you know uh by people waiting for him as he walked out the door so uh Chief I I appreciate your your leadership what your your commitment to the city to the village and if you could tell the this board uh
exactly where we are if we are better off than we were a year ago you've been here for a while and if anything has been paused or or is is there is there areas concern that this board should have or any of our village
residents should have chief I don't want to interrupt but um I like you to be efficient efficient with your response and I apologize that's not fair but we got about 10 minutes and we had one final item that just kind of left open before we move forward possible thank you thank you
everyone um first of all I'd like to thank the village of Bent Park for entrusting me uh you know with this responsibility i've been an honor uh I've been serving here for six years and um I love my I love coming to work here
every day uh I grew up not too far from here uh and uh you know I'm home to set this role in this transition and I will do my best to ensure the um safety and wellbeing of our residents uh onto the new chief uh police society
um basically you know one of the questions you have about vision of the department that hasn't changed at all uh it remains to be fully operational we have we continue to have the same staffing as when I began here six years ago we have two officers and we shift uh
and sometimes more when we have the help from our 17 officers that are still in the reserve that are doing each one of them is given 24 hours to the city so that continues to happen um we have civilized the operation uh
uh currently have uh two officers and motors that are here every Friday conducting traffic uh details uh in terms of our numbers and I I like to speak the facts our stats say that we still continue to show not triple but
sometimes even quadruple our numbers in terms of traffic enforcement that we do on the roadways uh we I think it was 10 times higher in the arrest that we doing uh a traffic arrest uh from from the traffic that we do on
the roads as well um we actually as since yesterday we partnered up with Florida Highway Patrol uh they have a truck and division yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with a commander and along with the city
of going to be assisting us with local things didn't get in prison so we're putting a team together to force once you be here with that um the morale in the staff is is high uh
get a lot of officers that come to us and said they're okay with the transition and they have continued to show uh to be resilient uh we communicated with them uh when the transition happened uh the manager
myself and our captain uh we met with them one on one to avoid any extracurricular communication and I mean overall everything continues to run the same um we we one lot one of the great additions that I think we had is that we
have now a full-time detective that is able to follow up in any of the cases that we didn't have the opportunity before waiting for the officers that the part the uh where we serve 24 hours a month for them to be there was a dis a
bit of a disconnect so that's definitely helped tremendously help us out with the investigations um I will continue to be here in this position uh and uh until new chief is selected and um anything that you need I'm always
welcome great thank you chief um you know I want to I would love to give the commission opportunity to speak with you about the statement we've heard from you both appreciate you both being here and certainly things that
manager mentioned unfortunately time engagement back so um I think that your presence future commission meeting would be helpful to allow us to kind of engage in some questions that we have so we very much I I very much appreciate
appreciate the update i'm sure the rest of the commission does as well so thank you both for being here thank you for addressing some of the items that Commissioner and her item i don't know if there's anything else that you had for them this part of your item before we go back to the item that was kind of left over um I mean there questions that
we can touch on a oneon one with the manager and the reality is but at this stage I just wanted to hear so people you know openly hear from you and that everything is under control programs are ongoing and that it's a reassessment of
staff for what I understand to make sure that we not only what we said we were going to do in the center programs is still going but also u make sure it's within the budget that we Is that right that is correct i think
that you know in my in my humble opinion one of the things that Kathy mentioned I think it's important for us to get back to basics uh I feel that kind of lost a little bit of perspective or lost sight of what needs are for the department and
I think it's it's important that we cover those needs uh I I a lot of the residents here mention the word public safety and and that's the the most important thing and that's where I'm focused and make sure everyone understands that can I ask you one last
question yes sir is that to continue this plan do we wait three months in this plan structure or we need urgency in hiring the chief uh I think that I I I served at at the
manager's discretion and I think I think it's important that you know I I I handle I can handle for now uh but I think that that there is a priority that we need to prioritize having
selected i I can do I continue to do the job and I'll try my best but I think the village deserves to have this issue dealt with leadership yes ma'am i appreciate that thank you very much
thank you very much um appreciate being here so um so there's two things in fact I would like to close this item that brought forward and we probably didn't get it as much as we did the prior item but um yeah so a was get consensus on
how we feel the majority feel about the current way that hiring of the chief of police um you hear my thoughts I can make you very clear um I am on the side um understanding you have all the
capability to do that and hire waiting and leaving that responsibility for the permanent village man um and knowing that acting chief is in place and programs are in place and we have the right staff to continue to officially
work with the budget that we have um um so that will be my first time so before if I may just run a foul of anything just a commission at this point yeah i I don't think you need to establish whatever the
commission has no sorry how they feel i think every No and I guess my point is is you all can voice your opinions and obviously that's what it is and the manager has the ability to take to absorb that and do what he believes is best um but I I
don't think it's necessary for you actually to have establish a consensus i think it's more for the manager to hear so um so I I like the idea that Cal presented of starting the process and
the committee i think that's a fantastic idea um I I I love that community involvement um and I think that uh we start the process now uh hopefully you know we get to the point where we have a
permit manager sitting um that can finalize that decision that's just so Mr mayor if I could so I'm you know I think we started this process like at 9:00 so it it it really doesn't give an
hour of time doesn't really justify this issue but I'm available and some of you I meet with weekly uh I'm available at any time even you you know where I live you know you knock on the door i'm here on Saturdays and Sundays sometimes
office hours i'll make time for Saturdays and Sundays this is an important issue and and I I I'm not going to just uh I want to hear from you individually i'll meet with you in individually and to discuss this and I'll also listen to the and and I don't
think it's just I'm not going to make the decision in a blanket i also listen to the staff i also listen to our officers and I also listen to the residents yeah I I I appreciate the perspective um and I will just say and I've been trying to get us to this point
um and I know we talked it's now you know we talked a lot about it we're at the we're now 958 so we got less than two minutes um I will just say that um respectfully I I appreciate where everyone has come from um we've heard a lot of good opinions and a lot of good perspectives and a lot of valid points
you know we're dealing hypotheticals is never easy uh because it can turn out one way you can say see we were right or it could turn out the other way and say well actually everything worked out fine so it's difficult it's a difficult thing to forecast um and I think um Commissioner you make a very valid point um each
commissioner vice mayor everyone here has made a fantastic point i think that the process that you've outlined based in what we've heard from the police department so far um I think it's a lengthy process um and um you know I personally am I'm pretty comfortable with the pragmatic approach that I think
we're we're hearing um and you know look and if that's the case where we say we have candidates come forward and they've gone through the residence boards they've gone through the boards that include other people that are you know experienced in in these in these types of decision-making processes they've met with the residents i think that meeting
the meeting with the residents of the meet and greet is great um meeting with police department also great um these are all valid ways to kind of vet candidates to make sure that we everyone has input into who that person is going to be and again to the point start the
process it's a long process al if you choose not to be with us or if you're not putting in for it or you are going to be with us i don't know i'm you know I'm not going one way or the other but if let's just say then you speaking you decide i I'm I'm done i promise i'm just saying
if you if if we get to the point where you got a couple of candidates and you know the new a new manager comes in that's not you um and they say you know what I want to start over it's within their discretion so I'm I'm comfortable with what [Music] isation communicate that we have a
process in place that you know a lot of people didn't hear any of this yeah a lot of people didn't know about this but they have those concerns about what's next again knowing the village community manager perview this needs to
be put out there as there are plans to have a restructure leadership restructure on this and there's going to be a process that all res I think business would be put up to to residents so I would ask you all over to make sure that that is email list you know all of
that social media whatever um we have um I agree 100% 100% agree well I think that kind of ties up the items um unless you have anything else um if nothing further on on your item Commissioner um I would ask for a motion to return motion
to favor thanks everybody thank you everyone yes if you wouldn't mind