e e ready when you are yeah huh no I said tell it's okay vice mayor ready when you are let's get started oops you gotta
turn your volume off all right good evening everyone thank you for coming uh thank you for everybody coming uh today is our regular commission meeting Tuesday March 4th 2025 um we'll get uh call to order uh with a a roll
call vice mayor Gonzalez here commissioner Amsler here commissioner hunting here commissioner Sam yeah M vice mayor you have the mayor's absent you have a
COR all right uh let's do the Pledge of Allegiance please United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for right done the pledge we'll go on to uh
additions deletions and withdrawals uh yes what I like to do is have where U I don't see it on here commissioner reports I don't see it I want to be sure that we add that
on commission report as well I have another one oh no I was going to say commission reports come right before um staff reports they usually come right before
staff reports for staff reports okay okay yes uh and I have another one regarding the current changes that are undergoing the police department uh I don't know if you all received a copy of
the item itself I did request earlier today that it be shared with you all um I was told that walk on items are against the code so I couldn't do that but uh we have done it in all my ten years as a commissioner it's the first
time I receive a notice that we cannot uh have walk- on items um I think it's sort of an emergency that we discuss this there are changes happen as as we speak and I want to speak about what those means for the goals we had in
place when we made the budget uh last year about four years ago I want to speak about how that impacts the current projects that we've been seeing from the police department and directly the budget itself so um I think it's an
important item again it was uh not shared with you with those uh terms and for me even makes it more of a an important item to bring up so I would like to see it added up hopefully before the end of the day but I will let you to
decide where I I didn't I didn't receive it I'm receiving it now um and I think from from my uh view of History uh actually we've discouraged walk-on items um without proper preparation without
proper notice right and I think we've talked about that and you've been here yeah um so we have talked about that there is precedent for that so bringing this here in my opinion now at the last minute I think that uh I'm not ready to discuss this I haven't even read your
memo um and I think that if you feel that it's an emergency um I don't think it's an emergency but if you feel it's an emergency perhaps you know we need to call a special meeting to discuss that okay but for me and we're four of us so at the end of the day with the you know
the majority rules here right so but for me I I'm not ready to today to go through this and discuss this during the meeting before you all make your your terms here also recognize that not once any time this has happened before the code was uh brought up as an excuse not
to do it uh since I've been a commissioner for over two years any walk- on items has been approved even if it was in an emergency I am pretty sure the reason it's been brought up this way and it doesn't it you know it wasn't
shared it's because the manager doesn't want me to bring it up and doesn't want me to speak about this today and so for that reason as we are currently in the midst of transitioning police department heads and looking for the right person to lead us it is important to have a
conversation if you've done it in the past for things that have been not notic as an emergency and I'm thinking this you know if we wait another week or so H you know things are happening as we go um we are you know in a way behind the
ball and I want to put the conversation in front of it um I'm not suggesting this is a life or death emergency as our code suggests but I'm just saying I want to be mindful that the times it's been brought up as an as an item as a walk-
on item it have been for several reasons different than this and accept it so this will be presentent at least in the two years plus I don't have an any commission meeting I've seen online either uh seeing that they've been requested to be cancelled so I just wanted you to have that I of course
support whatever you think about that right well again I I I'm not ready to discuss this I don't know what the manager feels or thinks um but I want to include it how I feel and think yeah um so but but at the end of the day it's whatever you guys I I agree with vice
mayor Gonzalez I I it's a lot to read and it's a heavy topic and I didn't come prepared for this I didn't even know about it till about an hour ago and I didn't receive it until just now so I'm not prepared to talk on it so I understand what was done historically with walk- on items but this is a a
heavy walk-on item and we've been had talks about this recently how we're discouraging walk- on items we we would like backup we would like preparation you you have the backup of the preparation it wasn't share with you I I had a conversation about this at 9: a.m in the morning with the manager I was stole at 3 p p.m it's not going to be sh
understand but I did not receive it and and that's okay here nor there it's the fact that we're not prepared to talk on I'm not prepared to talk on so I'm not comfortable I I think it's what everything you're saying I think is a very important item because I had I brought up a discussion item to be brought on to this to this
meeting and in the past we have had so many items brought up and there was never really any strict rules I had a a discussion item and mine was turned down and I believe it's turned down for the same reason as yours is no yours was turned down because I had no backup but
the backup that I couldn't have was the two emails that were told by the two so he couldn't share that so that was the that backup but it but it was given it on time okay and um so I I I just think your items very important and I would uh I don't have a problem with it being
brought up okay nope if there's no consensus then the request dies so we move along okay um Vice M if I could yeah oh I'm sorry yeah you you had asked to move your so if we can move
uh the reports which are eight move those to 11a yeah the the the manager report correct all the reports oh all of the reports sounds like a plan to me I mean uh okay so then um that brings us along
to our presentations we have uh Mr Javier Bon Court mayor sorry you need a motion to oh I'm sorry to approve need a motion in a second to approve the the agenda as amended I'll make a motion to approve amenda agenda as amended I'll
second it um I can I say no if I I don't agree with the amendment you you certainly can okay so no need a second it was a second it was
um no I'm I'm saying no well hold on so the motion hasn't been second it if I'm agreeing with the commissioner then it has to be enough so I'll second it okay and then is there a cons if there's no consensus then the agenda stays the way it
is so it's agenda stays the way it is all right okay so then now our presentation with uh Mr Bon for the executive director for Citizens Independent trust welcome thank you for coming thank
you good evening vice mayor Commissioners Mr manager members of the community um again Javier beton Court executive director of the Citizens Independent Transportation trust I'll refer to that as CIT moving forward it's a lot easier for everyone thank you for allotting some time on your agenda for me to speak I know it's a long
presentation but I'm going to fly through it very quickly um if you need me to slow down please let me know oh okay I am expecting someone from my team to join us she's stuck in traffic uh ironically enough and she's Mariana price our Municipal program manager so if she shows up I don't have to introduce her again
um is there a clicker or do I just say next okay so next once you get her once you get it going there is just a a you know one page newsletter that we put out that is being handed out to you now
um all right just give that another second okay next I should say that prior to being in this role where I've been for seven years years I did work for the city of corg so I have a municipal background I appreciate all the hard work you do at the municipal level so thank you um if
you were a voter about 23 years from now and you went to your ballot um excuse me you went to your voting Precinct you may have seen this referendum on your ballot uh essentially asked the voters if they would to increase their sales tax from 6 and a half to 7% that half penny being
called the uh half peny sales tax for transportation under uh a list of projects called The People's Transportation plan some of you may remember that from a couple of decades ago uh it's important to note the last line in that referendum language where the voters also establish the Citizens
Independent Transportation trust CIT to oversee the use of those funds by both the county which gets roughly 80% of them and the cities which collectively get about 20% of them to ensure that those dollars were used appropriately and for the purposes for which it was
created next so the CIT uh the organization I'm with uh we're a quasi independent agency of Miami day County charged with overseeing those funds we monitor audit review and investigate the use of ctax proceeds by the county and the cities and the implementation of the
people's Transportation plan it's important to know we are not midate Transit we are not the Department of Transportation and Public Works we don't build operate maintain any of it and we're not the TPO we don't do the long-range planning and assign uh other funding sources we're strictly a watchdog over the half penny funds next
we are overseen by a 15 member Board of volunteers uh one one appointed by the county mayor one by the league of cities and 13 by each of the 13 County Commissioners you're actually very lucky in that I believe you're in District 4 County Commissioner uh Mickey Steinberg's District um so her appointee
is the the current chair of the transportation trust Robert wolfart so you're in very good hands um at that level next if you're interested in becoming a member of the trust again these are volunteers from all walks of life uh please submit an application visit our
website m . goov CIT we do have a handful of vacancies we're always keeping applications on file for when vacancies occur essentially you can't be an elected or appointed official you have to live in the district of the commissioner that appoints you and you can't have any conflicts of interest
with the county other than that you know we we'll we'll take anyone from any profession next uh that trust uh of volunteers is then supported by my office the office of the CIT where uh the smallest office
in Miami County and we do a lot of the analysis and you know review the the request for the use of Sur tax proceeds um and then over oversee all the compliance um by the county and the cities um and I'm proud to say that our operating budget is probably the
smallest of any Department in the county at just $4 million which represents less than 1% of ser tax proceeds next one of our primary functions is to audit the county and the cities on a regular basis to ensure that you're spending the funds appropriately um I
believe an audit of the village is about to start sometime later this year we do them about every 3 to five years especially for the smaller Cities next so enough about us now let's talk about the money uh so a half penny uh
next I'm sorry a half penny may not seem like a lot but uh you know it actually adds up so we're currently collecting about $400 million plus or minus a year in that half penny funds since the in of the program over 20 years ago we've
collected almost $5 billion so that that little half penny is nothing to sneeze at um there's a lot of misinformation in the community as to how it's been misspent or misspent on other things the truth is 63% has been spent on Transit it has gone to the county's transit
Department 20 over 20% has gone to the municipalities for your use on transportation and Transit projects uh and that was per an agreement that was reached during the referendum less than 10% has gone to the County's Public Works Department for roadway type of
projects so you know roadways are important but it's actually been a very small percentage of what's been spent and we have about 8% in reserve for future projects as I said that little 1% there is us we're allowed to spend up to 5% um of cerx proceeds on what we do but
we limit it to 1% because we want the bulk of the fund spent on the street where it can help to move people next so over the course of those 20 years you see how the collection has generally gone up with the exception of the recession and uh obviously more recently the pandemic but it has grown
considerably over time and hopefully will continue to do so this CeX I should add is in perpetuity there is no uh end date next I'm sorry just one second not to interrupt U Can you check Pam that the presentation in the zoom is matching
what we're seeing here it's in the first slide so people there are connected in Zoom cannot follow what he saying against the lights are being shown where she the first life e there you
go you hit the next slide let's positioning yeah you got it thank you you sorry uh can you go back about three slides think you got ahead of me
there yeah that'll do so uh okay so this is our current annual year budget for cerx funds all this really demonstrates is that the Inc the percentage that's going to Transit is actually increasing as roadway projects are completed we're not adding new roadway projects to the
mix because we really want to focus our attention on Transit which is where we are furthest behind from where we want to be and compared to peer cities throughout the country next if you're really interested in the dollars there are some people who really like to geek out on this uh we have every detail over
40 years um on our website in this 40-year performa it shows every penny going in every penny go going out I won't go into it in detail or it be here all night but please uh you can find that on our web page next so enough about us and the money now let's talk
about the projects programs and services nope um that the half peny has paid for and will be paying for next so a lot of promises were made back in 2002 when this was presented to the voters uh and that was as a result of
dozens if not hundreds of public meetings that were held uh to hear from the public on what they wanted this fund These funds to go towards so of those promises again 20% promis to the cities right away and by the way that's that's distributed to the cities on a prata basis so obviously by population this
being a small City by residential population you don't get a ton of funds City of Miami gets a lot right it's just the way it is uh but we also promised Fair free transit for all seniors regardless of income what is now called the Golden Passport Fair free mover a number of smaller neighborhood
Improvement programs like traffic circles and and intersection improvements bus service improvements major highway and roadway improvements again over 40 Projects that were listed from the very beginning uh people tend to forget about that and then finally the expansion of Metro Rail uh to several along several quarters
throughout the county and that is the part that people seem to remember and that is the part where we've done the least to be honest next but to me one of the most successful part of the programs has been the municipal program that 20% that we give to the municipalities you've really
spent it well um all the cities at this point are running some kind of Transit service whether it's a fixed route circulator like people call them trollies or increasingly on demand service um through vendors like freebie and I believe you run one of those now uh some communities as you can see here
do both both an on- demand service and fixed route circulator so a lot of good things happening that's in addition to all the different roadway projects that municipalities are also funding traffic circles bicycle pedestrian improvements roadway uh improvements Etc next and the
village of biscane Park specifically again you don't get a ton of funds just given uh your small size um you're supposed to spend a minimum of 20% of that on Transit the other 80% you can spend on other Transportation improvements roadways Etc um and I do
know that you run a freeb uh on demand Service uh with those funds we're currently withholding F funds from the cities because there are some compliance issues that have been in place for a long long time we're working very closely with your Administration uh to get those addressed so that we can release those funds back to you and I
think we're making some good progress under uh the leadership so thank you for working closely with us sir and in fact we just had a meeting what a few weeks ago right to go through some of those things next again a lot some of the money is go into roadways most of that is completed
that's all this is telling you next but the real Focus I'm sorry before I get there um one project that's kind of roadway related and actually is really important is Advanced traffic management system so this is a fancy terminology for smart signals we all hate it when we
sit at an intersection and we know we could go but that red light is still there because it's on a timer that's Antiquated technology and other parts of the country have really caught up and have uh instituted this system so that you can adapt the traffic signals according to the conditions at the moment right there's no traffic coming
through there's no reason for you to wait this new technology will let you go through a lot faster so it's meant to make our existing roadways and and intersections more efficient to save people time the first phase of this project was completed it demonstrated a savings about 15 to 20% of time where it
was implemented the County's now implementing uh the final phases of this so next but really what we want to focus our attention on as I said earlier is Transit now a lot of money has been spent down transit on replacing the entire metro rail metr mover and Metro
bus fleet on expanding the Metro Rail to uh the airport on um several bicycle pedestrian trails and other first Last Mile solutions that connect to Transit and we even invested in TR rail both in a platform on Miami Central Station and
downtown and hopefully what will be a future Tri station at the Aventura bright Line Station um and so that you know we have been making uh some investments in transit but the bulk of the funds that have gone to Transit quite frankly have gone to upgrade the
existing infrastructure this system is in a really bad state of this repair or has been and so we've had to invest a lot of the funds not on expanding Transit but on upgrading and fixing what we have you can't build a second story on a house when you know the first story
is crumbling so the good news is a lot of that has been done and now we can move towards expansion next something I believe you you do know about um is the better bus Network now this isn't something that we're involved in uh but there was a complete redo of the entire
bus system there were some winners in that there were some losers I understand you may have lost the bus route uh it it hasn't been a perfect roll out but it has largely improved the overall system the good news is if you continue to have issues with something you may have lost or something that was rerouted not to
your satisfaction the transit department is currently taking feedback um and adjusting the better bus Network as needed so if you have any existing issues with bus routes that either eliminated or aren't doing what you want please contact the Department of Transportation and public works or I'm
happy to facilitate that discussion just let me know next as I said earlier The one extension of Metro that was accomplished was the extension to the airport which is fantastic we need to get more people to use it um but uh it does a great job of connecting both visitors but also
residents and workers you know to the airport and it is one of our largest largest employment centers so that's important next unfortunately other than the expansion of Metro Rail to the airport the county hasn't done a great job of actually expanding the rapid transit um a lot of promises were made
and they and they frankly just haven't been fulfilled the good news is we're now on track to do that through something called the Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit plan or Smart Plan and the map for the smart plan is exactly the same as the map that was presented to the voters 20 years ago uh
for the people's Transportation plan same corridors um just rebranded next so there are six corridors uh in some stage of development or planning and they are yeah there we go the South Corridor the beach Corridor the East
West Corridor Kendall Corridor Northeast Corridor and the north Corridor next South Corridor uh has been under construction if you ever head down south from Dand South to Florida City uh just along South Dixie Highway you'll see this actively under construction beautiful stations it is going to be
gold standard bus Rapid Transit it is a bus that essentially bees like a train there's pre-level boarding I'm sorry prepaid fairs level boarding uh it's not going to have to stop at intersections it'll blow right through with gate arms that come down as the buses approach so it's a lot cheaper and a lot faster to
do than a train but offers many of the same benefits this project is slated to uh begin service this July so that's really exciting next the beach Corridor what some may remember as Bay link uh is a project to connect downtown to Miami Beach and then
also a leg up towards the Design District um this is still being uh planned um the city of Miami Beach actually pushed back a little bit on the proposal which is uh to Institute a Metro mover extension both across the causeway and up to the Design District
stay tuned for that next another one that we've kind of taken a step back on unfortunately is the East West Corridor so this was originally slated to be bus Rapid Transit along State Road 836 the County Commission has decided maybe that's not the best approach approach and is taking a step back to evaluate Alternatives
potentially commuter rail along the existing CSX lines or potentially even Metro mover on Flagler Street so they're re-evaluating all of that next the Kendo Corridor this is probably the one that's least uh or I'm sorry um
furthest behind um again also slated to be some kind of bus Rapid Transit a lot of controversy in that Community about that because it would necessitate taking away a lane of traffic in a place that's already gridlocked so you know that's kind of been pushed aside while they focus on some of the corridors uh in the
meantime next so now the one that you're probably interested here which is the Northeast Corridor and I'm happy to say that it's also the one that's most likely to be implemented next after the South Corridor and that's because the tracks are already there the idea here is to use those same tracks that bright
line currently runs on I know you're all familiar with bright line bright Line's great but it doesn't service all the communities in Mii day County between Aventura and Miami Central and it's also at a price point where most people can't afford it certainly not for your daily commute so the idea is to complement the
existing bright line service with a commuter rail service something more akin to tr Rail and in fact TR rail may end up operating it we uh we still don't know uh and it will have an additional three to four stations in between Aventura and downtown with the closest one here being at 125th Street um so the
good news here is the funding seems to have been cobbled together we're providing the local match the state uh has committed State dollars and the Biden administration had committed $400 million now we have another Administration uh we hope they're going to honor that commitment and then ultimately it still needs to pass
Congress but we're optimistic that that will happen next North Corridor is the final one and that is slated to be this is the one quarter that's slated to be Metro Rail connecting from the existing MLK station North 27th Avenue to the Broward County
Line uh now truthfully because this is proposed to be Metro Rail it's going to be the hardest to achieve because it's by far the most expensive and it can only be achieved with strong Federal participation I mean we need for the feds to pay for over half of this and quite honestly I just don't know that
that's going to happen um given the new realities next uh we have also invested in park and right facilities throughout the county mostly out west and down south so I won't spend time on that next in order to pay for all this you know we need to
look under every Rock I'm sorry to make you so hungry at this time of night there are sandwich here um but uh we call it a funding lasagna right we need layers and layers and layers and layers of funding in order to actually pay for all these very expensive projects what we have today isn't enough so we're
always exploring additional things like special assessment districts and whatnot next other Focus other areas of focus for us first Last Mile Solutions you can build all these corridors and no one will use them if they don't connect to the communities they serve so making sure that people can get to those
stations from their communities and once they reach their destination get to the Final Destination whether it be a place of work a school or whatnot and that's what we call First Last Mile whether that's bicycle pedestrian paths whether that's freebies whether that's you know circulators you know it's something that's a really important part of the
the network that people sometimes forget about enhancing County Municipal connectivity I like to say we don't have one transit system in Miami we have 36 we have miam day transit we have TR rail we have bright line and then we have 33 cities you know each running
their own little Transit things and that doesn't always work for the end user right who just wants to get from point A to point B as easily and seamlessly as possible that's sometimes difficult with all these systems that don't always talk to each other or connect well so we're constantly encouraging the county and the cities to connect their systems both
physically and then also technologically via one Central app improving the customer experience you can build everything you want if it's not wellmaintained if it's not clean if it's not safe it does if it doesn't perform well people won't use it they won't get out of their cars so we're constantly on the county about making sure that the
the customer experience is first and foremost and finally Community engagement uh I'm a big believer in informing the public about what's being done with their tax money um I don't think you hear this presentation very often in fact the last time I was here was pre pandemic so I apologize for that
but you know I am out in the community now giving this presentation to anyone who will who have me all the cities Civic associations Chambers you name it uh next one of the programs that we launched recently was a CIT ambassador program so if you currently ride transit
or even the city's freebie on a regular basis you can apply to be an ambassador for us you're essentially are eyes and ears on the system you will get a daily survey on an app you fill out that survey you get points in exchange for doing that and you can exchange those points for rewards free Uber uh passes
free uh City bike passes free uh hopefully in the near future free discounted Transit rides so please apply if you're interested my.gov CIT and finally um a couple years ago I also launched a podcast because that's what
you do now right and so this one is focused on Transportation it's called Mobility matters and you know we just don't hear about Transportation enough uh so you know I bring on a variety of guests agency officials elected officials regular Transit Riders whoever uh to be on the show and we talk about
transportation and other issues that intersect with it land use Economic Development housing you name it so I would like to invite all of you if you're interested to be on my podcast it's every other Thursday on Facebook live from 9: to 10:00 a.m. um and my guest this uh Thursday are going to be
the property appraiser Tomas Regal and uh someone from Parks and Rec to talk about the Lum trail that is the end of my presentation I apologize for its length um but I am happy to answer any questions you may have I know that lasagna made you hungry and
you want to go straight to dinner a good presentation and I was glad hopefully we can have this a lot more I think it's well educated thank you thank you sir any other questions from anyone just want to say uh thank you for your presentation thank you for your time uh the Northeast Corridor project
definitely seems like something this community could really benefit from from so we're excited from it I hope to uh hear good things in the near future and and if you keep us updated it' be great yeah say your prayers I really want that one to happen than so much did you say this was on the making for 20 years or
so did I hear right the tax has been collected for over 20 years since 2002 but frankly a lot of these promises were made even before then I mean people have been talking about the north Corridor and bailing for for decades we just never had the funding in place to make it happen and even now with the half penny we're still Limited in how much we
can do frankly it was a Penny's worth of promises but politically they cut it to a half penny and it was just never enough even from the beginning to pay for everything that was you know promised to the voters so so we're doing the best we can with the money we have um we need to explore more funding
options thank you very much thank you Mr benor appreciate your time and uh anything that can get cars off our streets is much appreciated absolutely right here thank you for being here tonight I know you have a busy busy schedule but thank you for taking time out to be here thank you
Mr and thank you for your staff for taking my phone calls and late in the evening and answer my emails thank you very much our pleasure and again thank you to the administration they've been very responsive uh you know their joy to work with so thank you all right so we have a presentation
from The Parks and Rec Department good evening good evening uh good evening mayor well mayor not here today but vice mayor Commissioners Village manager staff residents guests I am Issa Thornell the parks and rec director um here to do a presentation
about our department um the ins and outs uh make it informative and kind of just get you updated of where we are what we're working on um some of our goals and and some of the things we do that you might not know slide please here we go uh so this
is what we're going to talk about my plans for this presentation um what is Parks and wreck it encompasses a lot but um can really kind of break it down simply um we're going to go over operation hours our current staff past staff um current programming some past
programming we'll dive into goals part department goals um Revenue special events Community engagement and then we will end with um what we're on the clock for and it's time for some upgrades in some maintenance plans that the
department is now establishing going forward slide please Madam clerk you might have to hit it twice for me um what is Parks and Rec Parks the purpose of Parks and Recreation is to provide public spaces and recreational activities for people of all ages to
enjoy Leisure Time promote physical health Foster Community engagement and enhance the quality of life within the community by managing Parks Trails playgrounds other outdoor fa facilities often including organized programs like sports leagues arts classes and nature
education uh that's the longest wordy slide I promise you I have in this presentation um Parkson wreck is meant to be fun and engaging so this is where we're going to stop with that and kind of move forward and I'll be doing most of the talking we'll have some pictures that will kind of describe what I'm
talking about but that's the overall goal of parks and wreck uh I am a member of the Florida Parks and Recreation Association I attend that conference every year and now working on getting U my accreditation for the national parks of recreation Association so we
constantly trying to connect with larger communities and communities as our same size to figure out how we can fix problems grow and strengthen our department and um also strengthen our uh connection with the community slide please so Community benefits Parks and
Recreation have three values that make them essential Services communities economic value um Parks improve local tax bace and increased property values um I often bump into real estate people in this community who say this is one of
their selling points when driving um people through this is our Ed Burke Park field that you see on the um picture if you're not familiar um Texas A&M did a review of 25 studies investigating whether parks in open space contributed positively to property values 20 out of
those 25 found that property values um grew higher the real estate market consistently demonstrated that people are willing to pay a large amount for property located close to parks in Open Spaces um areas that for their home then don't offer this amenity so this is a
huge selling point for our community it's um a huge open space we often see people just sitting in the med field kind of enjoying this space because from here how how far do you have to go to get something um as open in air in the grass um just to enjoy a moment um in
the busy streets of of South Florida now um number two health and environmental benefits parks are places that people go to get healthy and stay fit um just a visit to our park at any time of the day from sunrise to sunset you'll see people walking working out um kids engaged in
sports activities families engaging together in activities um and so it's a beautiful thing to see um Parks and Recreation program s and services contribute to health of children young adults and seniors um social importance number three parks
are tangible Rec reflection of the quality of life in the community they provide identity for Citizens and are a major factor in perception of quality of life in a given Community Parks and Recreation services are often cited as one of the most important factors and surveys of how livable communities are
so we take a lot of pride in our Park I know all of our residents do um we've come a long way from the years I've been here quite a while so I've seen the growth and the transition of this park um from the amenities we offer the programs we offer um and the things
we've do we do on a daily basis for the upkeep um we really do get a lot of foot traffic um it might not seem like a lot for the small community that we are but we are basically one of the largest parks in this area 125th North Miami
just finally opened that playground that had been closed since the pandemic um did a complete refurbishing of that but besides that park there Miami Shores which is technically um a private Community Park um we are a major park for unincorporated Dade which is
neighboring Us North Miami which is neighboring us unincorporated dat across the tracks um which is neighboring us so um though they aren't residents these are people who are actually a part of our community because they see this park as theirs um so it's very important that
that we understand that next slide please hours of operation so we are a seven days a week Department we are open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p p.m. starting this weekend we'll extend that time to 7 um Sundays we are open unlike
a lot of parks uh we are open from noon to 5: on Sundays again with the time change this weekend we'll extend that time to 6:00 p.m. Park grounds are open to the public from sunrise to sunset so this is the part of the presentation where I sneak in some rules that have been kind of being
broken lately um and my my opportunity to reach out to the public so we close at dark the park ground should be cleared by dark and working with all departments we are are working on that but for the safety of the people visiting um and for the respect of the
neighbors who live in close proximity of the park park grounds do close at Sunset um there are signs there posted um you see the did you know walking around the park the only sidewalk that exists in the city limits um it goes around the
park walking around that Park three times will get you one mile on your steps so that's a interesting fact to know by ordinance dogs are not allowed on par grounds um this is a big thing and a huge thing also there's a leash
law throughout the throughout the county um to keep in your dog on the leash so we just want to keep everyone safe um and I know people we go through it all the time enforcing this rule this is not a rule this is actually an ordinance um I tell them all the time so it's law um
I'm not just being mean we love our dogs but we also want to keep our Park clean we have dog stations around the walkways I see people drive to the park just to walk the community just to walk their dog around the community it might start at the park and walk through our streets um and end back at the park and take
their their Furry Friends home or they might just come there to walk and exercise um it's a beautiful thing but we also want to keep the grounds clean so dogs aren't allowed especially in our playground areas um and or off a leash we have kids there at all times a day and we know little ones they will
quickly go um to pet a dog that they don't even know and find out the hard way that that's not always a great thing um so slide please staff over the years so this is is a transition that we'll see so the first graph you see is I'm sorry small
print but I'll break it down for you the first graph to the far left 1995 till about 2005 that orange bar is full-time staff we are about five full-time staff the middle light green bar is part-time staff we were about 17 part-time staff
and we had about two or three contracted programs at the time in 2005 there was a huge sift where the department was basically dismantled rough times in the nation we understand what that those times were the shift then was now to look to
Outsource that this department so we went down to one full-time staff uh about four part-time staff you see about 15 to 16 contractor staff so what we did all of our programs now are contracted
out to independent contractors the offers our yoga programs we'll get into those programs later but I just wanted to see these transition so sometimes people think this department is so small but part of my responsibility at as a director is to uphold those contractors to the standards of the first the
contract they signed and also the standards that we look to uphold as employees of this Village so now we're at one full-time staff that's I the three part-time staffers and about 17 contracted programmers now we don't have
17 programmers our soccer program has about six coaches I'm adding those in there we have about uh two different yoga programs so we'll get into that but under all of our contracted programs we have about 17 employees there so as a director it is still my job to make sure
that they're doing their job and upholding the contract they signed with the village next slide please so these are our current programs um we have music classes for children we have a beach tennis program um golden gates does our after CARE program they
also do our spring break Camp our summer camp we have two yoga programs two separate yoga programs that we kind of Encompass all skill levels um we have a soccer program it is our soccer program it is not the shore soccer program the company that runs this program they also
do soccer programs in aventur um North Miami Beach they run our program they also do do the shores soccer program the the president of that program is for Miami Shores he named his company Shores SOC he's he's 15 years deep it's a
little late to change that title so we also have a youth tennis program where we set up a court um this is for small children you'll see the little little ones at the racketball Court sometimes you'll see the slightly older ones on our basketball court utilizing the lines on the court we pop do a popup net um
interesting facts about this three of our programs are run by residents it's a beautiful thing they take pride in their programs they stick with us they understand that it's going to take time to build these programs um we also have two of our programs or three of our
programs which have been here over 10 years two of our programs are in their first year um some of the limits and challenges we get as being a small community and limited space limited field um is that we can't compete with the bigger Parks so what we try to do is
get creative come up with programs that may be starter programs or feeder programs for the bigger Community programs um I I run the the only in-house program we have is the flag football program which we do um from October to December every year that's an in-house program that I do on Saturday
mornings it is a starter program it's for kids who might not have played any sports before but it gives them two hours to they learn how to catch they learn we've had children from the Commission in this program I've had many many Resident um children come to this program and they go on to either play or
not play but that's what we're there for we teach them more about the core values of sports Athletics um and teamwork so we take a lot of pride in these programs because we know it's not easy to keep these programs going sometimes they start with one or two participants um
and grow into great productive programs sometimes they fizzle out faster than we can keep them we've had silver sneakers that didn't work because every gy around us offers silver sneakers for free we couldn't compete with those prices uh we don't have workout equipment we're a little Limited in the works now was
hoping to bring this the Pilates contract which is another Resident um um that that will hopefully be in front of you next month to to get approved you actually signed a contract today a boot camp class which will take us outdoors and expand our programing a little more Outdoors for adults in some dance
classes um the foundation is Al is actually going to have a teaser class next month salsa for adults a one night thing to see if it's something that the community wants to engage in and keep going and we'll look to maybe tie in a contract with that studio uh slide
please goals hit it one more time for me please Madame clerk where it starts you'll probably have to hit one more time for me but um to preserve protect maintain improve and enhance our parks and recreational facilities and
programs um that's our main top goal and with that goal comes planning and and that is something I'm working diligently on now is to incorporate more structure more planning um things that are in writing that we can be held accountable
for um I'm a long-term employee uh and some of the things are just so routine to me because I've been here so long it's very easy for it for me to not see the need to put it in writing again I am the only full-time employee in this
department um so we wear a lot of hats all of the staff in this Village does um and so we we get in our routine and we're locked in the next goal for us is to enrich the lives of residents through our programming through our community events through everything we do this is
our goal we want you to have a place that you know that you can go to whether it's just to have your child's birthday party to uh get together with friends to engage a community events um then we have one more is to build a healthier
community and that again is bringing programming and opportunities for all ages to utilize the park to get healthy to put the devices down uh to cut off the video games for our young ones but I think even as adults we find oursel connected
to this phone sometimes and so this is a place that we want you to be able to detach and come even with we've had to adapt with we have screens all through the rec center that have the Flyers um and they're constantly moving and updating people of what we have coming as we notice people just won't stop at
the bulletin boards and and read anymore um everybody's moving so fast and going moving so fast so now these TVs they they the blinking the changing the constant movement of those things seems to engage people um and so we're using everything we can to let them know about
all the opportunities we have at the park slide please Revenue so parks and Recreation is something we don't focus on they talk about this at conference all the time we know it's a big it's a big item always in municipality but
Revenue isn't something we try to put the focus on with the thing the services we are trying to offer that being said if you see the bottom year I'm kind of try to do a breakdown for you that bottom year was uh what 2021 end of the
pandemic uh green and orange represent our rental fees this is for parties we do all of our renting out so all of our Open Spaces that are rentable the other one is for our programming orange is programming green is rentals obviously
2021 huge drop off 2022 we lost four of our programs due to the pandemic people had to go and get jobs our my Zumba instructor is now a teacher she never taught Zumba again after after the pandemic um it's horrible but that's what we remember from those times is
that we lost a lot of our instruction who did these wonderful jobs and now they had to go find jobs that were more tangible to the times so you can see the the the the steady flow that we get from definitely our programming and also um the rentals
which every every weekend this month we have a rental on Saturday and Sunday booked already we're locked in we we are a hot commodity Pavilion the Tot Lot field rentals so all of our Open Spaces are constantly constantly in that
Revenue that comes in it's always done within operational hours if they do outside of operational hours it's an additional fee but again hard grounds close at dark so all the parties and rentals close at dark we do rent inside as well um for some events the green that you see on the top
was 2024 that was the projected revenue of both of those items so in 2024 this year we brought in roughly um about 32 um uh um $32,500
with rentals and programming fees so my silver lining here is we budgeted about $35 for community events I look at if this Revenue can wash the community events will we invest in our community events for a year I feel like we're doing a a great service for the
community because those community events as we'll talk about shortly are one of the pillars of our community slide please our special events we this is some of these events are signatur events and all of our residents knowing anyone who's been to
any of the events know that our Halloween event Winterfest event in egg hunt um get talked about for neighborhoods over um Halloween is probably our largest event now last year um I think we exceeded any
prior year before we transitioned from an indoor event in Halloween after the pandemic to an outdoor event and it's only grown from there not only do people come here because they love the event they also come here because the vill they feel safe this is somewhere that
people have been coming for years I see people every year who have came as children they're now bringing their kids to this event where they live in biscane park or not our board also in other departments put on other event events that are held at the rec center
some of our boards are now doing events that will be held here we have an artisian Market that's held will be held outside this weekend I love the fact that they're now incorporating these different um pockets of the village it's a beautiful thing it's the smaller more quaint events but all of our medians are
in my eyes considered small pocket Parks we hope in the future to grow some of these medians not to do anything big that draws a lot of traffic but to somehow tie these medians into our park to create kind of a park system within our city
limits slide please I have some step some stats here but let's move on so we can feel free to hit the Grammy music if you need to community engagement can't see those numbers but but between the um Instagram and
Facebook over the last two years we've grown our following has almost doubled super important um again in this day and time when everybody's connected by their phones to help us get the word out from not only our special events and our programming but to emergencies and anything happening
important in the village obviously we also use next door um we count our guests so a few years ago I Incorporated a system of hourly counting where staff is has to get outside walk around we count adults and children in every area
of the park all of our high trffic areas so from 11: to close every day we track this uh by hand adults children are in the playground on the field this helps us see our high traffic times times that we may need to incorporate more staff
also it helps us track the the foot traffic that is in in these areas and see hey this area is getting a lot of traffic what can we do to Spruce it up make it even more inviting or hey let's play Coast attention to this area it's getting a lot of traffic lately we may need to do some keep an eye on equipment
and make sure for safety issues uh so I've really taken pride in this in this people count um often it also enforces staff and myself to engage with the people outside also makes enforcing rules so much more easier when they see you
walking around they they definitely understand that people are here um we have an eye out we're here to help we're here to answer questions to give you more information about programming um and then just engaging with with our everyday visitors you see we have our
plant SWA there which was donated by former Comm um commissioner um the U newly installed um bike equipment rack here was a Eagle Scout project um completely paid for by the eagle scout help um put in by our public works
department but another one of these community service and Community engagement things I really pride myself on um completely free to this the city we paid for I think six bags of concrete other than that it was completely paid for the three bulletin
boards that surround the parks and W um Center outside also another Eagle Scout project completely paid for public um by the eagle spout theirself they have to raise all of the money and get their friends and family to help engage to install it we're there to assist to make
sure things are put in properly but otherwise again another free commodity um that we got just by engaging with the community me and the manager uh spoke with another Eagle Scout perspective last week he wants to put a small Library box um in the tot lot another
wonderful idea we already have the library inside but to have that book out access right there in the Tot Lot is something we love the Butterfly Garden on 10th Avenue was originally an Eagle Scout project was just refurbished Again by another Eagle Scout project um so
definitely that Community engagement is always beneficial and it gets helps us get things done and sometimes they think out the box and and bring ideas that I haven't even thought about or sometimes they ask what our needs are and if it's something that we haven't budgeted for but can get it done we'll get it done
next slide please Marty Rubin parks and playgrounds are the soul of a city the picture to your left is our playground and 22 years ago the picture to the right is our current playground structure slide
please I say all that to say uh we are on the clock with this playground this is one of those stats you you hate incorporating but at the same time it it needs to be said according to the American Academy of orthopedic surgeons more than
220,000 children under the age of 14 are treated for playground injuries in emergency rooms each year um just last week roughly thanks to our people count we had approximately 165 children visited the Tot Lot approximately 38
children visited our secondary playground um and it rained all of Tuesday so that's a wash day so out of six days last week those were those were basically Our rough numbers as a department as a village and obviously I know the uh we've had talks
with the commission we are definitely um on the right path in regards to our frame of mind and understanding where we are um and for the community that doesn't know we are we are currently exploring funding options from the fer app Grant um and other Grant
possibilities to make sure we can make the proper upgrades we need to keep our our children safe at these playgrounds Madam clerk if you could hit the slide the space for me one more time uh safe playground so huge thing
supervision obviously is always a big thing and just to reiterate with the public we we as staff we aren't there to supervise children you'd be amazed how many times I have to get parents off their phone or parents out of their car
to come watch watch their child on the playground um we've recently put up signage on the Tot Lot playground that says children aren't allowed without an adult we've also Incorporated a rule for inside that children aren't allowed without an adult um I'm one of the big
components of not having to oversign and put a a sign for this a sign for that a sign for this because they will always say where it wasn't a sign there um you have a sign for everything else why wasn't it a sign that that I can't climb on top of the purple slide that's 12et tall um because right we know that you
shouldn't do that but without the supervision and the help of parents and Guardians we can't properly supervise um you see the other aspects um there that that we're working on obviously equipment maintenance um is a huge thing
Incorporated in our hourly walkarounds every two weeks uh we do a safety inspection of the playgrounds there's the checklist um some things are rushes we have to close off playground equipment if there immediate danger some things we are marking mark off but the
timeline for replacement equipment is usually three months um so our goal now is to continue to pursue these U possibilities of funding for complete Renovations of both playgrounds slide please Madame clerk I'll make this very quick grounds Updates this is some of
the maintenance upgrade plans that um starting to incorporate for all our hight trffic areas is just doing a complete breakdown um fiscally of the financial impact it takes to upgrade maintain and then again um to make the proper changes that we need to for
safety and aesthetic purposes um going forward I will present this um at a later date but this will be for all of our hight traffic areas and it'll be something that can be continued on um whether I'm here or not again this is a beautiful mirror on the side of our um
racket ball court if you aren't familiar Village biscan Park is a bird sanctuary I am e Thell parks and R department uh any questions please thank you Visa any questions from anybody thank you Isa so much I have few
so um do on all these programs do we have a percentage of the programs there are first come to biscane park residents you know how Miami St said you have to be a
resident you get a special discount I know we have those programs set up in terms of that financially is that also in terms of availability um so not really I think the only program where that would even come into play obviously would be our
soccer program I think no other saying it has to be I'm just wondering that's no the program I think is pushing anyone away at this time of actually trying to get more people to register um so but there are incentives financially you're absolutely correct there um but there
isn't a priority set on the I guess that priority is just that Financial discount that is offered to Residents um going forward absolutely that's something when we incorporate any other programs that are going to be larger on the scale of that that's something we will definitely take into consideration and from all of
this um you said I mean the graphs on increased Revenue coming from the park it's remarkable if you put it 2021 first versus what's now obviously come after Co that would be a reality um are we a full capacity in terms of rentals do you
think from all our spaces so there's Revenue coming and I know it not might not be our mainstream for revenue for the village but are you 80% capacity 90% if we had an additional area for rental would that bring more and that's what
I'm trying to understand so where are we with the rentals right now we limit rentals to one a day um just because the impact it has on the park and on the seating so usually the rentable areas are we leave the the one um area by the
basketball court which is covered seating that's not rentable um because we want people to have somewhere shaded to sit we we can't rent out everything we um keep a minimum of 50 people per rental um that ensures we can never gauge the exact traffic of what who's
going to be out on a Saturday and Sunday we also only do rentals on weekends um so we've already we've set some parameters into regards so I know that limits the revenue a little bit but it also it's what what we want to limit because the traffic we can only
contain so much um parking obviously is a huge issue now that we're discussing so right now that's the limitation the only limitations we have I think the picnic area which was the corner area on the um north um west side of the C uh Park used to have a pit there that used
to be a rentable area so that was one of the pictures I have there my goal is to bring that area back up we lost that huge tree that shaded that area um the goal there is to now make that a new rentable area um a little more a tree in there but it doesn't have the people
want the Pavilion you know once we get to this time of year you need the south Florida you need the Pavilion not only from the Sun but from the rain as well um so I think right now the only other option would be I know we had a rental um recently here on the 114th median um
or incorporating some of these other Parks but I know there's also limitations there nobody wants a large party in front of their house not being just the the main source of Revenue it wasn't just the intention either but to understand if there is potential for more but to your point the experience is
with people you know come to the V to the park and it's not too crowded it's it's the perfect balance between paid events you know and they have to reserve the spot and just com in Freely and still have a chance to play ball so
that's it thank you anybody else just want to say Isa thank you for your presentation it was great um I want to say thank you for your diligent hard work over all these years I heard is this your how many years in the village and I was hired in in 1995 so
this would technically be 30 years I was gone for three years from 2014 to 2017 um but yes well congrats 30th year here in the village you said that's a huge accomplishment and I just want to say thank you for your diligent hard work your facility is loved it's well used
it's evident and I know I think the commission would all agree with me that we have intention to see Investments put in that that facility with improvements to our our field to our parking to our hopefully our playgrounds of this application this summer uh I just want to say thank you again for a facility
that our residents truly cherish and we need to protect it and and improve it for them thank so thank you yeah I I concur um I just wanted to also add that uh you know I've been here 10 years now and served for four years on this commission and now I've gotten myself
into another for um but um on a serious note uh your department has been the best and most consistent uh over all the years that I've been here and I you know it's because of you let's be frank it's not because of anybody else appreciate
that um so thank you for all you do for this Village it's it's really appreciated and and and we notice it thank you thank you so he said I won't let you walk away without letting you know that he's he's an outstanding employee uh vice mayor as
as you just said he goes above and beyond every day and uh and he's done it all on a shoestring budget and he never complains about anything and he's helping us out now with our C CIT uh program and and he's jumped in uh you
know and taken over that that project and he's helped out myself and the village just tremendously and uh he reminds me every day that it was my wife that hired him that's she brought him here and she she makes some good choices in her life
and he's one of them so thank you Isa for all you do for the V thank you thank her thank her okay so we're moving along to public comments um we have a lot of folks that are going to talk this evening I'm I'm presuming um so we have a thre minute
rule um and we're going to adhere and uh be strict about that 3 minutes so that everybody has an opportunity to speak um so if you'd like to talk uh please uh make sure that you say your name and and your address uh for the record uh and uh
we're going to go with the V uh who's here in the Log Cabin first and then we'll shoot on over to zoom was there something that you wanted to say and actually since this is probably I mean this is important uh subject matter that I think that if we can just extend the
three minutes because I I mean it's very important what happens is I don't want people talking fast and not getting to the point it's not just a talk there's a reason why everybody's here and I like to have it really um be extended the courtesy of within
reason I'm not saying somebody to talk for 10 15 minutes but I think we need to extend it because I like to hear everything that these people have to say that's up to the rest of the board so I I I I'm good with the three minutes if you guys want to allow longer comments
and three minutes is are agreed upon that's what we've always done that's how our rules are and I wouldn't want to change it from this meeting to the next to the next it's three minutes I'm with you okay so three minutes everyone has three minutes uh again state your name and your address
for the record please thank you good evening uh Commissioners and residents um Mark steel my address is protected under statute 119 um I am here to explain my circumstances led to my decision to step down as chief of police for the village
of biscan Park Police Department this was not a decision I lightly made but it was one I felt was necessary to do so with the experience of the hostile work environment that was created by Albert childis I also want to share my concerns about certain actions that I personally
observed that in my view rais serious ethical and legal concerns and questions when my team and I took over the bis Gan Park Police Department it was struggling with the aftermath of years of corruption and mismanagement particularly under Rano and Then followed by the previous administration the department was plagued with
misconduct lack of accountability and a culture that seemed to put out personal agendas above the public service our enforcement in short period was able to make significant progress through the reforms and aim to increase the transparency Focus focusing on the
service of the community with honor and fairness however as time went on I personally observed and what I truly believe were efforts to uh for the Department to be undermined by childr based on the observations I believe that the actions and directives rais serious
concerns about the proper use of public office I felt pressure to comply with instructions that in my opinion were unethical and potentially unlawful this included what I perceive to be attempts to interfere with ongoing criminal investigations the use of sensitive
information for personal political gain and the target of employees for personal grievances rather than legitimate causes I personally observed what I truly believe that Mr childr used police assets for personal gain and ordered unethical and unlawful orders in My
Views these actions not only conflicted with the proper law enforcement procedures but also compromise the Integrity of our department I was especially troubled at the directives that seem to be involved with the constant threats and sharing sensitive information about investigations without
a clear and lawful cause when I refused to comply with the experience that I perceived the significant increased hostility from childr creating an environment that I found impossible to continue to serve in an effective and ethical manner I also
want to clarify that I've reported these concerns to both of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Commission in good faith seeking for a thorough and unbiased investigation my decisions to step down was influenced by the fact that after coming forward with these whistleblower concerns I felt no
support no reasonable accommodations or protections from this commission and that just reinforced my decision to step down it is puzzling that an intrum position can cause in in a short period of time so much grief and compromise to
an ethical Department this has caused so much harm in a short period of time and no in the commission has thought to suspend Mr Childress until the internal and criminal investigations are complete as I leave this position I do with a heavy heart but my Integrity is
intact I hope is that my resonation is a wakeup call to this community and this commission that deserves better leaders who act with honor transparency and accountability unlike children's the Bible says in Proverbs 113 the Integrity
to uphold guides them the Unfaithful are destroyed by duplicity let us remember that Integrity is not a virtue it is a foundation of just leadership no Administration can stand I'll be happy to share some
evidence and other stuff with the people after this commission meeting thank you that sounded problematic um can we do this together is that okay can you do it together yeah yeah as long as you try to be quick yeah
sure uh hi my name is Micha Lea and this is my wife Melanie uh we live at 590 Northeast 121st Street uh we're both big environmental activists and we moved to biscane park in 2015 because we thought it was uh
different than other Miami neighborhoods uh it's known to be more Progressive and more econscious than most of the rest there's diversity in the tree canopy and the wildlife around and it's a bird sanctuary as noted by the beautiful U mural on the side of our racket ball
court uh so over the years uh We've enjoyed living alongside all types of wildlife including the formerly endangered Yellow Crown Night Harens uh who our neighbor Vicki and April first pointed out to us years ago together with our North Miami neighbors we've watched them nest every year in the
Australian pines in our medians and uh sometimes babies even visit our yard in search of insects as our yard is free of pesticides they're nesting trees on 21st include one of our uh next door neighbors Vicky's house and several on
the west side of Fifth Avenue uh they choose the same branches every year for the nests on Thursday February 20 20th around 8:00 a.m. I was out for a walk and saw an adult Heron on a line in front of my neighbor's house in front of their usual nesting tree warning me not
to get closer to the tree I knew why as they do every time this year they had built a nest I had been hearing their distinctive calls all week so just before 11:00 a.m. that same day while I was on a work call I saw people starting to cut the trees out front now at first I thought it's the
usual FPL nonsense and we were as we weren't really given notice that the Australian pines would be touched on 121st Street so the letter sent out the residents only mentioned 111th to 119th streets when it comes to speings and accidents like just happened in front of our house
this evening right before we came here uh on our near Street we've been told that it's difficult to make any kind of changes to our roads since we Border North Miami and share 121st Street with them so we thought well apparently this isn't going to apply to us because this tree project will span the two
communities and our trees therefore would likely remain untouched so after Mike alerted me I went outside and to my surprise it was Joe's Tree Service starting to cut down the tree where we've watched Yellow Crown nigh herand nest for years they had already removed the branches where
the birds nest each year thinking back to the letters sent to Residents by The Village manager about the other streets I knew the trees were supposed to be inspected for wildlife and would be bypassed if Wildlife was found so my neighbor Vicki and I begged Joe's and the interim Village manager to stop
cutting the displaced her and couple watched from a nearby tree as their nesting tree was being cut the tree came down that day and its remains were piled on top of several native cocoa plums which the people on our street had advocated for and had a
role in choosing several years ago which are slow growing after showing the village manager more herand and Nest west of Fifth Avenue and after much discussion he agreed to postpone the cutting of the Pines on that side of our street until they were inspected by a wildlife expert
like Pelican Harbor we later found out that this was supposed to have happened before each tree was cut down as recorded in previous meeting minutes but it did not had Pelican Harbor been contacted they would have advised that it's nesting season sorry guys six minutes is up if
three minutes okay I'll try to hurry sorry I'm sorry go ahead we learned that our other neighbors have been watching the same species nest in trees every year on 11 19th and 6th and 121st and 8 those trees are now gone it's nesting season and we have failed the birds and our other wildlife and failed our own
ordinance as a bird sanctuary mistakes happen when we're moving too fast and unfortunately our Wildlife suffers for it we have to do better in an email response to commissioner Huntington later that day after the trees the tree was cut on our street tropical aabon Society stated the Yellow Crown Night
Heron is protected under the migratory bird treaty act so during the nesting season now through July you shouldn't remove any tree with active Nest or any trees in close proximity to a tree with active Nest nor should you attempt to
relocate or disturb any of the birds or nests so as we no longer have the opportunity to remove the Australian pines and phases which would have offered some relief to our Wildlife uh we do suggest that we as a village do our due diligence and carefully selecting replacement trees and find new
ways to protect our birds in our opinion repl reping replacement trees should be of several different Native species that can serve as wildlife habitat offer shade and offer privacy in the meantime we need barriers in the medians to both discourage parking and the use of our
medians as thorough fares new ways to new ways to protect our Birds could include Banning the use of fireworks and switching to an integrated Pest management system instead of using harmful pesticides in our public spaces like in our Park as the city of North Miami and Miami Shores
have done thank you all so much I'm going to try to be respectful of your time I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak um but I'm going to go over about 20 seconds okay for what it's worth I'd like to share my perspective on your decision to
destroy oh I'm sorry Dory Zan 11800 Griffin Boulevard for what it's worth I'd like to share my perspective on your decision to destroy all of our Australian pines I'm a native of a Miami and one of four generations who have
lived and paid taxes here in the village my family has been here over 50 years today just happens to be the day that Florida became the 27th state in the Union March 3rd 1845 or 180 years ago
that got me wondering when was Miami Incorporated that year was 1896 this means those Pines have been growing in our area almost as long as our first pioneers and more than half
the time that Florida has been a state one of the reasons my family decided to settle in this Village was because of the uniqueness and the beauty of those towering Pines that lined Griffin Boulevard and the C8 Canal which
was D edged in the late 1800s Arthur Griffin actually featured our Pines in his advertising for residency in this park I asked Stephen Duncan the expert from Miami Dade County
why our Pines are considered bad trees and describe to him the dozens of parrots that screeched from the Treetops each and every morning he said neither the Pines nor the parrots are native so this got me to wonder how many
non-native trees and birds have adapted here the fact is that 55% of all tree species identified and 45% of all tree sampled in the south Florida area are
nonnative as far as Birds Go the recent compilation lists 196 non-native bird species which includes 72 species of parrots and parakeet 51 Pines and 22 species of
waterfoul based on these facts alone the decision to destroy these trees has been rash and Reckless did you ever consider trimming and pruning these trees basic tree
maintenance we do that in our homes I don't recall in 50 years living here ever this ever being discussed or done in 2004 a few of our village residents tried to stir a campaign to
rid our Pines the village of our Pines the residents on Griffin Boulevard were having none of this talk then in 2022 Albert Dominguez from our Public's works department called the county directly saying that the Pines were
posing a threat I would love to know who directed Mr Dominguez to make that call because not a single resident I spoke to on Griffin wanted to lose these historic trees I have shared a 50-year history with the
Pines in our village now to discuss the negatives that you site about the trees they are invasive not in biscan park they're not invasive iguanas are invasive they're not multiplying and dividing these pine trees they have
not I have not seen in 50 years any sea turtles nesting or any crocodiles nesting under these Pines sry we need you to WRA up we've had hundreds of tropical Cyclones and many named storms in the past 100 years and yes we've had
Australian pines that have blown over but not any more than any large tree we have been fortunate not to have had a major storm in years but even if you are new to the area we've all seen the total devastation from last summer storms that affected our West Coast and even into the
Carolinas why didn't you seemingly intelligent people choose to maintain and prune our trees are you all so shortsighted that you couldn't see the negative impact this would have on our residents tree canopy wildlife and our
property values or have you squandered our money and valuable resources because you simply do not care thank you hi my name is Susan H I'm a resident of Miami Shores 70 Northeast 101st Street
uh I'm a native uh plant pollinator Gardener a lover of wildlife I've been in love with nature since I was a young girl the I'm sorry just give me a moment excuse me I think it's important Al that we listen to this
comment the the um yellow crowned uh herons were in the tree of one of my good friends in the neighborhood so I along with her got to see them and their babies and if you've never seen them they are a site you want to see so I
understand that Australian pines aren't native but as the woman before said many trees in Florida aren't native and part of the problem with that is cities aren't requiring replacement trees to be native so that's an underlying problem
that all including Miami Shores needs to address when a tree drops in my soil I'm not required to replace it with a native tree so there's underlying problems that need to be addressed but when we come to the to the birds to go and cut down
trees of nesting birds that sounds like common sense that no one would do that in a community and then to not tell some of the people that live here that it was going to happen my friend went outside to find Joe's in
her front yard and she said but I don't know if there's babies in the nest and she had to ask someone from Joe's would they please check before they cut down the tree that is not okay we have the ottobon society we have Pelican Harvard seabird station we have so many people
in Miami that care about our Wildlife it is disappearing we need pollinators we need Birds we need to protect nature because if there is no nature there's no us they say you can get rid of worms and bees and the world will fall apart you
get rid of us the world won't fall apart we must protect nature thank you I forgot my glasses so bear with me okay hi my name is Maria my legally name
is Maria Sani Mullen uh I live at 528 nor East 121st Street but everybody called me Vicki I'm the one that they be mention it that the first time I saw the verse with my daughter anyways um want
you read it so I don't become right away emotional on the day that they knock my door so I can move my car I was shock because two days before I asked the city employee what was the status of NIS 121
Street at he replied that nothing concrete because negotiations were taking place with nor Miami because we share the medium that morning took me by surprise I had to remove the cars and embrace
something I Was Fear they cutting on some amazing trees that have been protecting me me and my family for the past 22 years those trees have been hosting the most amazing birs they already mentioned what birs
are second between the what's you here they work a little bit better yeah um amazing trees that have been protecting me and my family for the past 22 years those trees have been hosting
the most amazing Birds especially watching with my daughter the yellow crowded herons coming every year to Nest was an amazing experience we documented The Nest the eggs the parents feeding patterns we knew that they were special
and they were in danger we saw the of Springs um grow and pop their head out of the nest we saw them learning how to fly every day we count the babies we named them of course my daughter put all
Disney's characters names and observed their behavior by the way my daughter is 26 now and this is when she was younger of course we got worried in several storms when the branches were shaking and
thought that we were going to lose them but they were resilient then they were gone till the next year where they where they were back right before the springtime we felt special some
way when inside the same trees oh the same way that inside the same the the same trees we have bees those bees meant a lot to me because they belong to me I rescue few
beehives before the pandemia but on September 2020 my house burned down I'm the one one the House burn down and before rebuilding my home I relocated those we need you to wrap up please yeah thank you those bees to be
safe anyways I just want to I'm going to stop reading and I just want to say this 121st and when I say I feel protected I was sitting in there and I remember April was 6 a police was hiding in my
yard looking for somebody in Section 8 across the street where shots starting to get fir I was having a birthday party at my home and we went all down with all my with all the kids down if we didn't have
those Australian pines I don't even know now I'm thinking why I feel protected about those trees this past Sunday I had to call the police guess what they parking in my space we had three buildings section A in front of my house
they don't have place to park we need you to wrap up I'm sorry okay great you know you have two presentations long as and I'm sorry I'm going to say it that put me to sleep okay you want education about nature education start walking around and see birs and the
trees because it's great I'm a PE teacher and everything that you guys do for sports is great but what you guys are doing on education if you can even be a role model fix it you break it fix
[Music] it all right St your name and address please for the record hello my name is Aran Rodriguez uh my address is 523 uh noreast 121st Street I'm actually from
no Miami right across uh bisc Park and um I'm here talking on behalf of the herons like all these neighbors uh I've been living in the neighborhood for five years and since I moved here I've been watching
the nest every year like they say exactly on the same Branch uh they come at the end of the winter they are here for spring summer and they leave at the end of summer around six seven months and right now they are nesting they about to lay eggs I've been watching
them since they came on the 1 of February here I watch them every day with my son that is five years old and and the trees that where they are nesting they are Mark to be cut down and I think um like other people have say you can
find all solutions for this you know uh we are the only species that actually can change the environment to live good and better all the other species they only do it to survive you know and to protect themselves from harm to to protect the uh the you know their the
little ones and this is exactly what they do uh when the summer hits and the little birds they are there the mom stays in front of the sun all day through the morning or to the afternoon I then move with the sun like this to
protect it from the Sun I think you guys can do better than what you're doing uh to protect the birds and find other Solutions wait until the season is over maybe to cut down the trees at the end of the summer you know
they will have time next year maybe to find another nesting place and I think we have ah how do you say um we we we own everything that we have to Nature and Florida have been here for over a 100 years we came with disrup
environment and now when they come here we killed them we cut the trees where they leave and I think we we can do something better so I just came here on prepare someone told me this is here today and this is what I had to say I hope you guys can help thank you so much
thank you good afternoon um I'm J J loano my address is protected under the chapter 119 uh I was recently retired as a captain from BC Park Police Department
after serving with exension for over 44 years in law enforcement I'm here today to address a matter the great concern regarding the unjust circumstances surrounding my retirement I was brought it was brought to my attention that Albert
shrz as an intering manager instructed George rosero to terminate my employment because according to his words I looked at him the wrong way that way this clear example that M
Mr childr abused the power of power the abuse of power and misconduct throughout my career I have held a high ethical standards in law enforcement and it is a great disappointed that I'm find myself subject to a such matter on the uh ch um
Chief uh Mar still leadership the visan Park police department has undergone significant trans transformation moving forward to a broken organization to one grounded and unethical um principle in operation on
Fitness unfortunately Mr childr appointed to his for and toxic and hostile work environment that UND determining the progress made by Chief steel Mr CH conduct both in biscane park
and his previous work places of uh employment uh kisc and Elder reveal a consistent pattern of bullying and unethical Behavior open my open his arrival Mr childr Enter the chief of a
police office in warranted aggression um raiding the chief of for actions taking prior to his management despite having no involvement in um in this matters furthermore Mr sh made en
an erronous decision to remove take home vehicles for part times Personnel sighing not ins this action was not only unsupported by policies but only unjust it to Target the police department particularly given the take on vehicles
were maintained for the apartments whichin The Village including a vehicle that he took from the police department to use as his Pome card or pleasure Commissioners hire him with no benefits in this clear abuse of au his authority
furthermore Mr childres has regular directed the chief of police and The Command Staff to engage in actions that were not unethical unlawful Chief still and myself refused to comply with this in proper orders as we are
both by our duties of to uphold the law and ethical standards Mr childr ordered the The Command Staff to write tickets on to the uh residents of North Miami and ex exemp the residence of uh the bis
G Park this unlawful order was not followed it is the great concern that I report this response to this action Chief uh steel and myself responded to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
unfortunately his respon was escalating in his aggressive manner towards the department on the same day that I filed a hostile work Enit he ordered rosero to uh fire me that's for me is um
retaliation I or the commission to uh recognize the significant legal and ethical risk posed by childr continue employment in this capacity the the ongoing liability of the village is considerable from illegal
and reputation standpoint I strongly implore the commission to take immediate action by removing this person out of his position of a intering manager and throughout initiate an independence uh
investigations into the complaints con concealed from a public View and so far a six um hostile work environments filed against him which in the last last month uh that he has on his file thank
Youk good evening my name is Danel Rodriguez and my address is also protected under Section 119 I'm a retired officer with 24 years of service from City of Miami I started as a reservist and then accepted a position as a part-timer here for the past one and a half years I have enjoyed serving
the quiet close-nit community of bis Gan Park however since the arrival of interim Village manager Albert P chers in November 20124 the environment has deteriorated significantly impacting both morale and operational efficiency within the police department Mr ch's
decisions have caused unnecessary stress and hindered our ability to serve effectively he immediately revoked take-home vehicles for part-time officers the investigators and the resource officers who are reservists canceled scheduled trainings and implemented Petty policies like restricting access to Village Hall these
actions have created a ripple effect of dissatisfaction and frustration amongst the staff as a part-time officer I have no benefits no medical coverage no sick days no paid holidays my sole Advantage was the use of a vehicle and now even that has been taken away despite these
challenges I contined to answer calls and fill shifts uh due to Staffing shortages exacerbated by Mr Cher's refusal to hire new officers the situation has become untenable especially with the requirement that a supervisor be present on every shift a rule implemented by Mr
chis and was rest was strictly inforced until Chief steel res resigned due to the extreme stress overwork and actions inflicted upon Him by Mr chis Mr chs's leadership has been detrimental he prioritizes cost cutting over safety demanding that on Duty Officers handle
roadblocks for tree cutting instead of paying Off Duty Officers a clear liability he also insinuated that I should issue citations to non-residents while giving only warnings to Residents which is both unethical and illegal his actions reflect a focus of on his own
salary rather than the well-being of the community or the police department the department is crippled by outdated equipment including a failing computer system that often prevents us from writing reports many vehicles are worn out and constantly in need of repair these issues coupled with Mr toes' P
poor leadership have created a crisis of confidence and capability his policies have driven dedicated officers to resign and even harassed our chief to the point of resignation leaving the department understaffed and underresourced for these reasons I believe Mr chers has
created a very hostile work environment and is a liability to bis game Park I urge you to reconsider the suitability for this role and reopen the position to attract qualified candidates who can lead this Community with vision and integrity as the last remaining female officer in the village it is with a
heavy heart that I resign effective today I can no longer stand by while the safety and well-being of this community are jeopardized I hope you will act sweetly to restore the security and stability of bisan Park deserves and by the way in our November we would have been here but we were told that it would
be a Act of war from childr if we came here and we would be terminated okay honorable members of this commission and everyone present my name is jile steel my address is legal protected on the Florida estate
119 thank you for allowing me to the opportunity to expect to speak today I came before you know as a resident of this city but as a concerned citizens of this of this state and of this
country one of who believe in the Law and Order and in the responsibility of leadership to unhold those principles when my husband Marcus still took office as a chief of police this city was
already facing significant challenges the police department had lost credibility and rest returned public Trust seen like an challenge task but from day one he worked tearly
to restore Integrity rebild respect of his town of this town and bring back honor to the police department his vision was to make biscan Park a mod Community one of the O the others could
look up to as an example of Prof profession professionalism and account ability in his CH time as a chief he had tried remarkable progress and had it not been for certain obstacles Beyond his
control I have no D he would have comp complishment even more I have know I I know him for many years and I know that he will never under any sance allow his
reputation to decline his commitment to his as a police officer his duty to serve it to the public and his Integrity have always been above of a personal interest that is that's why he will
never engage in any illegal unethical and against a law and certainly he will never add again against to the well-being of the community he s to protect meanwhile a new city manager was appointed
according to publicy available record this individual was previously separated from a position in a Key West on June 26 of the Year 2024 this information is not speculation
or classify is accessible through public sources including Google and YouTube it is a is concerning to see that similar discussion are now taking place in biscane park I encour everyone instead to review the public available in those
sources this situation raises an important concern not just for this community but for all us who believe in the Integrity of the legal system as a law aan system I ask how can I expect to
public respect to the laws enforement when concern continue to arise in decision being made within very struct me and enforcement and I must ask when we when will be the day uh the
people can high value and and recognize for the education their acknowledge the Integrity on their honest on honesty when will be the day when qualification and ethic favoritism or recommendation on personal on connections Beyond hiding
the sit when conflicts arise in any work environment why is only one side of the history here why are Act taken beside on the perspective without ensuring that all view view point are considered I'm
sorry raising more question than answer because of this we continue to Lost cap passionate professional people who dedicate their life to doing things that they that they really care and they really like to often those who speak up
what right at the one of the pores aside ignorant and forc it to out like Mark still and hdle and and this lady that I don't know her name I'm sorry but she was forced to to kick out just for one person okay it is troubling to see lack
of transparency and even more troubling to witness to absence of accountability this is a deeper disappointing because this are the kind of I never saw when I never saw I was see in this country I
left Cuba believing that corruption and mismanagement were problem in the past and yet here in this country here we are this is my personal opinion so I see hold until the hope the the justice will
show up because at the end of this day no matter how far someone tried to run reputation trust and honor will always stand above everything else as I as the saying goes when throws arrive life the
lies has to run away when trust AR Right light has to run away I use this commission to reflect on this concern and to unhold the highest standard of the the leadership because
trust once broken is difficult to rebuild thank you so much because what is happening here is really a shame I'm sorry for I take so so long thank you hi good evening my name is Joe I'm the
owner of the tree service and I just want to share some information um the trees that were removed it didn't have any active Nest I actually personally emailed Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and
Pelican Harbor seab birth station and they said if uh the trees can be removed if there are no if the if the nests are not active and active Nest they defined as no eggs or chicks in the nest so no birds were harmed in the process um everything was done ethically
and legally with good intentions um the the the Australian pins they do kind of get bigger than the native trees so they crowd out native trees and that's the intention of you know removing those and planting native trees that's the initiative
um you know uh moving forward if we decide you know if we as a village decide Community decide we want to trim the trees instead of remove the remaining ones I'm happy to do that if you want to remove the remaining ones I'm happy to do that if you don't want to touch them at all I'm happy to do
that too when no birds were harmed and um I'm sorry about the stress I caused you know in the process but you know just working thank you all right any other comments
Danielle Huntington 744 Northeast 119 Street um I wasn't planning on to talk because like I wanted to see what the public had to say but um uh I had to mention that I applaud the village of biscane park for removing
the Australian pines um a lot of you may not know I'm environmental Scientist by my education I worked in the Southeast Environmental Research Center as a trustly colleges at FIU for seven plus years um I specialized in
invasive exotic terrestrial um habitats and I actually worked with endangered species uh such as the cape Sable Seaside sparrow with endangered habitat um loss and restoration I specialize in urban canopy restoration and assessments
and helped do the mamade mapping as well in a research project I also was certified in agre ology and did my uh one of my grad certification projects on allopathic effects on tropical Orchards so um just a little background so when
we talk about Australian pines not only are they invasive they're also exotic so they exhibit behaviors that choke out or make the environment toxic to Native species so we're not just talking about something that's been here a 100 years it's something that's been here for over
a hundred years creating a habitat that is actually not not conducive to Wildlife that is native here they don't support any invertebrates besides termites and things that might eat the rot so we're talking a about a public safety hazard that a bunch of counties a
bunch of municipalities are on board with and this is a project that's been talked about for over what 10 years 12 years something like that so putting on my environmental hat I applaud you for taking that step forward there definitely could have been better communication but um it's a project that
was much needed because these are trees that are just not suitable for uh like a bunch of pedestrians and uh we have a bunch of native Pines lbl slash that could be replaced that would actually support
wildlife and the number one um detractor to wildlife in South Florida as you all may know is habitat destruction so actually you're contributing to Habitat destruction by having these trees that create allopathic effects toxic effects
to the soil to the trees around it to anything native essentially and that's all thank you thank you any any other comments from the from the public here all right do we have anything on
Zoom yes I like to speak Mr Raymond unmute yourself please is you yes hi good evening David Raymond 11520 Northeast 9th Avenue um couple of things let me start with the drains just so you won't hear about
trees in the oh did I did I win wow I'd like to thank the academy um okay so first first of all it's been very draining for the last decade to um
not have the drains cleaned and I want to um I know that commissioner Huntington you know has champion this uh for the last I don't know probably year or so that I've been fetching about this to him personally and the rest of you for the last however long you've been there
and I want to also thank uh our manager for getting a contract on board hopefully the four of you can agree to approve that tonight it didn't sound like you were getting getting a lot of of agreement in the beginning of the meeting but please whatever you do please clean the drains it's raining it
was raining a few minutes ago so please clean the drains for the whole village um Issa did a wonderful report the the playground and the park that is the heart of our village and I wish that
instead of mucking around with these grants that we haven't gotten done not that I don't love grants I've written a million of them but um we just cut down a bunch of trees and found aund what $30,000 or something to do that but we can't fix the playground for the kids so
please I hope hope you would focus as much on doing those kinds of things um in terms of the trees just to uh to piggyback on what what um Danny was saying a little bit ago I was on the parks and Parkway board for many years there was a plan in place that predated
me that identified Vian arborist the trees that were bad the Pines that were bad and the ones that needed to go and there was money in the budget every year to take them out and it didn't happen one maybe one year trees were
removed um if this would have been done with the bad trees the ones that were identified that would be great I too miss the birds every morning I walk a creature of habit I would walk up to 111th and visit my whole there was a whole flock of parrots that went back
and forth between the pines and I I mourn them when I walk by but I know that we need native trees there and I would hope that you would replace these with trees that provide the same height for the Raptors and the parrots that use those and finally you know people move here we
moved here our our children and grandchild live here because this place is safe and it's full of trees I think that's why most people live here but what we've heard tonight is that we're losing a lot of trees maybe not in the best way and I'm not sure how safe
people are feeling I know this is the third police chief issue I'll just call it since we've been here big issue I don't know what's going on I have no idea people are riding on next door is Metro taking over God forbid please I say that as a
former County employee this Village would would end if we turned over policing to Metro da police we would get no attention because there's virtually no crime here compared to the other area so please whatever you're thinking don't do that anyway thank you and I'd like to
thank the academy again thank you David done s unmute yourself please good evening my name is Don sales my address is protected under floor statute 119 thank you for being here today as a private investigative reporter I've
spent countless hours uncovering the truth sifting through documents and interviewing those who have crossed paths with Mr childis during his career what I found is deeply troubling and it's time we bring these facts into the light let's start with Key West during his tenure city manager Mr Children was the center of serious allegations
involving unethical practices and hostile treatment toward employees particularly a City attorney the concerns were so overwhelming that the commission made the decision to terminate his employment now it's not uncommon for leaders to face criticism but what followed was alarming rather than accept accountability Mr childis
retaliated by making false and shocking allegations to the state attorney how did he manage this by leveraging friendships from his days in Miami beach but it doesn't stop there before his time in Key West Mr chis was employed in Dural officially he claims to be retired but I ask you this why would someone
retire early only to jump right back into a city manager position elsewhere it just doesn't add up even more suspicious was the severan package he received a benefit not typically associated with a voluntary retirement but rather a forced departure my investigation uncovered that the mayor
of deral had significant concerns about Mr childress's professional conduct and ethical standards these concerns led to a private conversation urging him to resign essentially a gentle push out the door to avoid outright termination Mr childis often boasts of his 40 Years of professional management
experience yet a closer look shows a troubling pattern less than four of those years ended on anything but bad terms at the heart of each controversy were accusations of unethical actions that rais serious questions about his abilities and more importantly his motives what's even more disturbing is the underlying pattern of vindictiveness
from his code enforcement days to his recent roles multiple interviews paint a consistent picture Mr childis appears to use his authority not for public good but for personal gain even in biscane park where he now holds office residents and insiders alike have shared stories that this suggests his behavior has not
changed furthermore I'm currently investigating potential bid rigging as many have mentioned Joe's was contracted to address the trees in the village with a contract of $120,000 this was prevented presented to the commission as the lowest bid received but inquiry with other companies revealed quotes ranging from
$50,000 to $100,000 quotes withheld from the commission so what does this mean for biscane Park in my professional opinion this community is sitting on a ticking Time Bomb of liability keeping Mr Chon in office isn't just a risk it's a guarantee of trouble down the road this
investigation is far from over but one thing is clear you can't afford to turn a blind eye the residents of biscane Park and event and every Community Mr chus has touched deserve better they deserve accountability transparency and Leadership that serves the public interest not personal agendas thank
you thank you Miss Louise B unmute yourself please good evening evening everyone my name is Louise Blair uh my address is protected under Florida statute 119 I'm also another private investigative
reporter working on a story on the village of biscan Park I am here today not only as an investigative reporter but as someone who is deeply concerned about the path that biscane Park is headed down with its current leadership my investigation into the hiring actions of Mr childis has uncovered some truly
alarming details that need to be brought to the Forefront for the safety and well-being of this community let's start with something that I find deeply troubling the hiring of a person like Mr chis his past marked by serious concerns and a history that seems to have been carefully covered up through Extreme
Measures raises a red flag from the start despite these glaring issues he was selected to lead this community however the real shock came when I am covered that not not only can only be described as an alarming pattern of misuse and misappropriation of resources
one of the most concerning findings as of today that I am ready to release was Mr Cher's personal use of police assets I'm sorry Louise it's a little hard to hear you if you can get closer to your mic or phone
[Applause] okay okay so one of the most concerning findings as of today that I'm ready to release was Mr ch's personal use of police assets specifically a vehicle that should never have been in his possession the vehicle in question is a Tahoe originally part of the police
Fleet it is alarming to think that Mr childis has taken this vehicle for his own personal use upon watching the commission meeting where he was appointed I noticed the hesitation of many Commissioners there were they were clearly uneasy with his
$76,000 salary but they approved it nonetheless without without any additional benefits at first Mr chers had access to a white Ford Explorer the same vehicle the previous manager had been driving but apparently that wasn't enough for him
after several interviews it became clear that Mr chis didn't want an older vehicle instead he took it upon himself to take a police vehicle one that's least and paid for out of the police budget this included hundreds of dollars spent just to remove the Emergency
Equipment all so that he could drive this vehicle as if it were his own but the story doesn't end there my investigation revealed that Mr Childers has been ordering police vehicles to be auctioned off he argues that these vehicles are old and too expensive to maintain but if that's the case why
would he take a vehicle that is in good working order for himself this raises the question is this not misappropriation of government assets even more troubling further investigation revealed that part-time police officers who work week in and week out are being told to park their
assigned Vehicles the excuse a missing policy but I dig deeper and guess what I found there is a policy for the police but what does not exist is one that permits the city manager and other departments to have take-home Vehicles
this raises even more questions about Mr children's judgment and his understanding of ethical conduct in public office but this is just one example of his troubling Behavior as I continued my investigation I uncovered evidence of multiple hostile work environment complaints nearly six in a
matter of just a few months these complaints were covered up and the culture of Silence surrounding them is one of the most alarming aspects of this investigation nearly everyone that was that was filed one of these complaints has been forced to resign or retire this is is alarming Trend and points to the
retaliation of one man Mr chis I am still compiling the full extent of my findings but before I publish my complete investigative report I wanted to take the opportunity to share these critical examples with you the actions I've uncovered uncovered raised serious questions about Mr ch's leadership and
his commitment to sering we need you to wrap up please okay I'm about done his behavior as I've shown is not only unethical but potentially illegal this is not the end of the story but the beginning of the conversation in the near future I will be releasing my more in-depth article that sheds light on the
full extent of my investigation biscan Park deserves better leadership and it is time for the truth to come to light thank you thank you um Chris can you unmute yourself thank you Chris trit my address
is protected under 11971 what I'm about to say is my opinion based on my observations it's come to my attention a manager childis intends to investigate Mark steel for his involvement in the termination of Roberto Navaro it would appear that he is trying to exact some sort of Revenge
the actions taken by steel were ordered by me and by Chief Lewis Cabrera we received complaints about Navarro's Behavior as it pertained to creating a hostile work environment we instructed steel under the authority of internal affairs to investigate the complaints based on the outcome of that
investigation the recommended and I agreed with the termination of Navaro while he was in probationary status the idea that steel was involved in any sort of plot or corruption is complete lunacy I can only surmise that those claims are a desperate attempt at retribution by
kis steel did the job we ordered him to do investigate objectively I am aware of three complaints of a hostile work environment filed against childr due to his attempts to destroy anyone whom he sees as a threat to his authority or agenda now
that I'm gone and now that steel is gone it is my opinion that the old faction with its horrible management practices and Corruption is attempting to regain control of bppd and will stop at nothing to do so in my opinion chis is bring that in if that's what biscane park
wants so be it but stop trying to take down innocent people thank you uh Mr vice mayor I think that's the last Zone David Raymond uh is uh I think believe his wife wanted to speak oh his hands still up Mr Raymond does Miss Raymond want to
speak does Mrs Raymond want to speak let me just hi Amy raymond9 11520 sorry there's an echo Northeast 9th Avenue um you know I'm so sorry about
all of this especially about the chief because he was it was really an honor to know him he's the most one of the most beautiful people with Incredible Integrity which I thought manager childrenis had I'm sorry I I I was wrong
I was wrong I'm sorry but and I should have I should have done some you know had more knowledge before I spoke but it's just a shame to lose the chief it was just it's just the best that he he's one of he's
just a great person and he's a very bright human being and and he was just such a great Chief and that's just the saddest thing thing that he should be he should have to leave because of what's gone on here and I hope he'll come back
when I hope he'll come back so and and please get our drains clean not just for us but for the whole village because it's really serious it's a really serious issue the drainage of biscane Park so please put us on a schedule and and get it done thank you
all thank you Amy yes I would like to speak there someone else yes Bobby novaro I would like to speak okay go ahead Mr novaro yes I heard uh what Mr Truitt said and what Mr Mark steel said and I would like to say that I am a
professional law enforcement officer for 45 years gone through the ranks from public service Aid to police officer to detective to investigator at the federal level for the Department of Justice with a top secret clearance I have worked
homicide burglary robbery kidnappings anything that you can think of I was a commander of an internal affairs unit I was a commander of a human trafficking unit and I was the previous assistant chief there and what
I would like to say is that not only is Mark steel a liar and so is Chris Tru that I can prove it and Mark steel has admitted that what he wrote about me and what Chris truart did was wrong and was
a lie and he has admitted it to another chief of police and he has admitted it to your village attorney and I have formally filed documents with proof that he has lied furthermore it is public record that he was terminated from his
previous employment not like he says that he left for filing complaints of hostile work environment against every single one of his bosses his captain or his major even the chief
of the Depart of of the department this is his course of conduct he can't help it he was recruiting people to go to the state attorney's office to file charges against the current manager people who said they
didn't have any information and didn't want to go this is part of his little game to try to get a manager out that's holding him accountable and if you think that he's truthful go to his linkoln account right now and look where it says
his history and it says that he was a deputy chief for the village of bis Gan park for two years you and everybody on this conversation knows that that's a lie he was a deputy chief for three months four months maximum and the only
reason he got there is because he was Chris tru's little boy that's it not because of qualifications he was never even a firstline supervisor only at the Bureau of tobacco and and and liquor where he worked that where they ter terminated
him for poor performance because he couldn't even supervise three people I'm not telling you anything that's not a public record please Google it and if you don't believe me ask the village manager and the village attorney who I have met with and I have gone to the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement after I requested public records of eight or nine memos that he said steel wrote and he hit him from me and they didn't provide them from me to this day they have not provided them to me I got
them through another public records report when they gave them to another potential employer as you know that is a violation of the law Florida State Statute 119 it's also a violation of Florida State statue 838 okay of official
misconduct so before you believe everything that Mark steel tells you do your homework because the village is in serious liability right now especially with me I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry no comments from the from the public go
ahead finish you need to wrap up Mr Navaro please okay that's it I'm done uh what I said I've given it in writing to the Village attorney and I requested a formal investigation not like them that they hid it they didn't investigate anything about me they just wrote it and
said it was true but now I got to respond and I got to show how they lied how they lied okay thank you for your time thank you Mr appreciate all right uh anything anybody else I have three um emails that
were sent to me to be three emails uh to Mayor gr and the commission I was extremely dishearted I'm sorry it's from Cara Enit 1162 Northeast 105 Street Miami
Shores I was extremely dishearted to hear that many of the Australian pines in biscane park had been cut down and especially in the manner in which it was done in my opinion the most beautiful and valuable elements of biscane Park
are its three canopy and the nature it that inhabits it even if some of those trees are invasive Australian pine cutting down trees with active Nest during nesting season is never okay any Landscape Company who is active in this
area should know that and understand that the trees must be inspected before removal going forward to protect the trees the wildlife and the status as a bird sanctuary I hope that you
will understand and appreciate the importance of protecting wildlife and perhaps assign a public works employee to monitor the process of future tree removal to ensure compliance with best practice of inspection before
removal removal of the remaining Pines can not happen until July when it will be safer for the birds I appreciate the memo from commissioner Amsler as it regards future tree selection and I'm sure that you will be able to find local
Tree Experts to help you with the selection of appropriate replacement trees that are native and will one day become new habitat for wildlife we love Miss Mary Benton founding director of bound by
[Music] Beauty uh she does not have her address here but it was distributed to it was Disturbed to read I was Disturbed to read that proper procedures were not followed when cutting down the Australian pans in biscan
park resulting in several being cut down that had active Yellow Crown Night hering nest in them these beautiful native birds are important part of the ecosystem and they are protected by the migratory bird treaty act additionally
as a bird sanctuary BP should be especially careful to protect nesting Birds I ask that you follow the expert advice from the tropical aabon society and leave the remaining trees on 121st
Street untouch all through July in order to not disturb any Nest I am a resident of neighboring myi Shores and have seen these remarkable birds from time to time in our village and strongly believe they must be protective protect Ed wherever
they are nesting I agree that the pin should be cut down when it is safe to do so and hope they will be replaced by Oaks or other trees that provide sanctuary and substance for important Wildlife like birds I ask that this email be read to the
commission um as I am unable to attend the meeting thank you Mary Benton Katrina Morris a Miami resident 33133 dear biscane Park commission I recently learned that about learned about the
Australian pine removal that happened without a wildlife assessment that destroyed the Yellow Crown Night Heron nesting site 29 out of 37 Australian pines were recently cut down in biscane park a bird sanctuary without expert
Wildlife inspection Yellow Crown Night herand lost their nesting trees during nesting season I impla the intent to replace the invasive Australian pins with native trees and mistakes happen that is a good
opportunity to review procedures and codify steps to avoid future habitat loss Katrina Mars that's it Mr vice mayor thank you we have no uh other public comment
we'll close public comment all right public comment is closed uh do any Commissioners uh wish to reply to anybody Mr vice mayor before you do that may I just make us just as provide some advice to the commission if
thank you um with regards to your comments or your replies to to public comment I would um I would just advise and recommend to the members of the commission that you not discuss or
specifically address any allegations related to any type of whistleblower discrimination um retaliation claims or anything of that nature those I I I can tell you that those matters are being
looked into um and I would suggest to the members of this commission that it would not be in the best interest of the village at this time for you to discuss the specifics as to those matters that have been brought up there are there
there is a under Florida statute 119071 one there is a confidentiality um provision with regards to the complaints of discrimination although I think to some extent those have been thrown out the door but I would still or out the window
I guess it's a better way to put it but um I would still recommend to the members of this commission that they don't address or comment on the specifics of the allegations being made all right thank you Brad um all right
anybody have a response uh yes I do I'm concerned about the comments that are made here tonight uh by former police officers and the and the public I am also concerned about two emails that I received from the chief and another
officer so much that I requested a special commission meeting which I didn't have the support to have I tried to put on the agenda as a discussion item about these two emails that I received but the attorney and city manager told me that I I didn't follow the rules and I couldn't get it in at
that time I didn't get it in on time that was not true the manager was very angry about about it and told me that I had to go through him and he would tell the clerk if I can put on the agenda he decide what goes on the agenda we have
never had that in the past I would like to read for the record my discussion item which our ex attorney can I read my discussion item or can I just put it into the since I'm not allowed to have discussion item I read these are com you're making okay
I'm asking replies to public comments right so I'm asking that's what I'm asking you before I did it reply however you see fit thank you I would this was an item that I put on for my for the agenda I request I would like to request since I didn't get
an opportunity to have the special commission meeting I decided to put it on the agenda for discussion with the commission which is the correct thing to do I would like to request the opportunity to add a discussion item to the agenda for the upcoming Commission meeting to address an important matter I
believe it is necessary for the intern Village manager to be temporary relieved of his duties pending a formal investigation in the interest of fairness similar to the actions taken in the case of the police chief two emails were sent by the police chief referring
to a hostile work environment an action was taken against the police chief shortly afterward I would like to discuss the whistleblow protections and the proper steps to follow in such cases the intern m city Village manager is currently facing four allegations turns
out to be five from three different employees given wave of these allegations I believe the intern Village manager should be immediately suspended pen in independent investigation this situation differ from the prce chief's case when a single allegation was by a
disgruntled former employee who had already raised a Sim CL with the previous Village manager which was found to be lack of reasonable basis led to his suspension we need to treat all employees at the same the same I would I I believe this commission
needs to uh suspend the allegations that are being made against this city manager need to be investigated and I think that we need to uh uh suspend this city manager with with pay and uh so that's my statement
last first I'll defer to our attorney and say that all investigations are pending and I won't comment further on any of those active investigations uh to the trees and the birds first let me start off by saying uh we lead a very eco-conscious family we are friends of
nature we plant native we welcome all types of uh butterflies and birds into our into our uh house or into our backyard um but that being said Public Safety comes first these trees were talked about 6 years ago 6 years ago was
decided by uh independent arborist that they were dangerous they have been sat on for six years that six years they got taller six years they got more dangerous that the rot set in it was I understand that they should have been trimmed but that was not the world we live in today
just two months ago a tree fell Without Rain without wind it just fell on its own that could have hit a child that could have hit a family that could hit a car that could have hit your house any one of your houses I understand birds were displaced no birds were harmed no
eggs were in the the nests the the this was done ethically this was done in the right way I personally went out in the first days of cutting and witnessed Joe's stopping for a nest to investigate it stopping for a raccoon that was in the tree stopping for two beehives that were successfully
removed I I will always advocate for native trees to be replanted I will always advocate Advocate to protect Wildlife but I will always advocate for Public Safety it comes first thank you thank you um she wanted to comment
but since she's not here I'll just comment quickly I just wanted to answer something that you said uh in your in your comments about opening up the the manager position the manager position is open uh he is still the interim manager and uh we are actively in the process of
um coming up with uh a benefits package and opening that uh uh job up for others to apply for that job so it's not he does he's not the the permanent manager at this point so I just wanted to make sure that you understood you understood
that okay um commissioner anel you have something we done thank you so yeah um first of all thank you to everybody that took the time to come forward and engage with the commission to hear you out we don't get
a lot of this uh feedback straight up many times people are very busy with their lives and when these things matter everybody comes forward so event clearly these two things are very important police department and our trees and our
who we are in bisin park so thank you for that um everything related to the legal aspects of an investigation go and I defer to the attorney I don't think he's heard me as much as you've heard me in the last month and conversations back and forth
I don't think we've ever spoken as much with the attorney uh since I've been here in the commission for the past two plus years um as we have in the last couple months so that is in essence to me um a little bit of a pulse of what's
going on and I don't love it but again I defer to the processes in place when it comes to Legal um matters having that said uh there's two topics the police department uh for those that were Wen here before uh the commission meeting
started today I proposed that we added an item to the agenda the item was to talk about the police department leadership transition um I was quoted that that was
not an emergency as is States in our Charter for the very first time since I've been a commissioner we've had multiple items walk on this is the first time that I'm not allowed to bring it on it's a sensitive matter and I believe
it's been just asked to be quiet about it so um I urged the rest of the commission to reconsider to make it an emergency meeting for us to discuss clearly this is far more bigger than
what we anticipated and I think we need to discuss it there's uh some of this going around uh if you want to read what the matter was about but it's it was about the future my item was to focus on what's next the purpose of this is to
have the best interest of the village at heart [Music] um in 2023 we built together with commissioner art I think you are the only one and Comm commissioner mayor rooth now and another
commission uh different commission the values of the village for the very first time it was the first strategic Vision our V our values start from an acronis that acronis is trust and the T stands for
transparency and I think it's very delicate to be true to those values and so I think we urge uh you know I urge again that we consider having the conversation soon um I think it's been missing lately I um there had not been
proper communication of the agendas um proper communication of the election we have resolutions in place that have not happened um I think we need to make a stop and consciously think about how we are acting that is in regards to the police
department so again I'm hoping that we make that pause and we have the conversation in regards to the birds and the trees we are a bird sanctuary the first ordinance for the village passed in
1932 making us so it is part of our identity and it is part of our values if you go back to listen to the commission meeting we had uh last month it was myself that made the request that
every um uh tree that we were going to knock down be inspected by accredited organization that didn't happen until people like Melanie and I'm sure other people contact and been calling
about what is going on so thank you for again Eng G and telling us about it I would have not know what a blue heron Crown yellow Heron is and I I'm admiring the fact that there's so many people that stand
behind it as I stated on my point last month on my way to meet with Melanie to understand and show me she showed me the birds in the tree that were in the different tree clearly the the other trees are being knocked down next to it by chance I met three gentlemen that
were busi in the village taking pictures of our of our Birds one from Arizona one from New Jersey and one Floridian and they just came here every fish and season to do that because they enjoyed the variety of wildlife they might they
find um so it's in the values again um of course Joe thank you for what you do this has nothing to with you personally and in the job that you perform I think it's it's from uh how we operate and how we sort of move forward with the directions have been given in
this case you know you you you're a vendor I was hoping a credited organization that has no Financial benefit come um and and do that clearance so I think my suggestion would be that today we consider making this in a special meeting so we have the
conversation about this topics I did commit to have a further um view into the current ordinance for the bird sanctuary that we have as well as the different things that uh we can do to prevent that this happen again
there's some trees left over um we need to see how that's going to be considered the trees need to come down it's been said many times from safety reasons and liability issues um if that's the course we can slow down we've been fast and
forward um very much so I very much appreciate the experience Mr child BRS to the table when it comes to management we needed that but we're a very very small village we are not K West we're
not um Western we are very small and we need to make sure we're treated with the characteristics that we have and um I think lately we've been treated a little bit like a big city moving very straight
forward very fast so I propose we slow down and that's will be the end of my comments I was going to say during my commission report so you'll save some time there um but yeah that's my proposition to you all this is a proposition I'll uh I'll
uh respond to that uh matters of Life Safety you don't slow down you take action right away that tree could have fallen on a family that tree could have fallen on a child could have fallen on a car could have fallen in a house I come from a public safety life safety background you don't slow down when when
life safety is concerned these trees were were classifi dangerous six years ago we are well past borrowed time slowing down could potentially cost someone their their life and I don't want to say well hopes and dreams hopes and prayers I'm so sorry we do something you do something now by all means if
there's a endangered bird which this is no longer endangered birds it's a leas affected bird now at this point we don't endanger we don't move nesting sight but if there's no nest in the trees the trees that don't have Nest should come down they should come down we should continue the contract because matters of
Life Safety a public safety you don't slow down on those you you move forward and you move forward to protect the public good um I just I just want to add that it's my understanding and I may be wrong but I heard also that um at some point
certain trees were identified for uh because they had you know that had been identified as potentially dangerous trees and then now what I heard is that having cut down some of the trees that weren't even identified they also had
significant uh rot in the uh in the trunk of the tree that could have potentially uh have caused severe damage to a home or to a pedestrian or or you know whatever so so I just want everybody to understand that I you know
I I for me you know I don't want to cut anything I don't want to cut any tree uh but when you put it as a life safety issue uh and the fact that you know people this is a very walking Community as everybody knows here that that lives
here everybody's always walking uh and and God forbid one of those trees like the the other one that fell in a nonstorm non-wind event uh happens to fall and kill somebody uh then that would have changed the narrative right
and so that's that's the way I look at it um having said that you know I think you know going forward um you know there's there's certain trees that uh may still have nests in them and I think that perhaps you know we need to slow
down a little bit there uh if if if if you all agree I I I don't know the answer to that um I I don't know anything about uh migrating birds I love birds I have bird feeders all over my house uh because I love to see them but so I don't I don't understand the the
complexity there but um if that's a possibility you know we're not go we're you know we're far we're still far A little far away from from Storm season so perhaps you know I don't know I don't know the answer but I I I think that's just something for us all to to consider
yes I'm sorry public comments is closed go ahead I'll let you answer the question because uh they didn't do it when they should have done it right no I
I well I understand but you understand from from an administrative standpoint and from a city standpoint the liability piece right of you know of one of these trees just like again like the tree that fell uh God forbid you know so we save a
nest and somebody dies right so you have to take that from from our sitting here where we are not sitting where you are and and I and I understand where you're coming from but you have to try to understand where we're coming from you know we're trying to do trying to protect the residents of this Village
right uh and and it's a very hard thing to you know juggle I get it uh but from our perspective that's that's what that's what we're looking at is you know can one of these trees fall and kill somebody so you know that's that's a
difficult thing yes I may in intersect because then we can go back and forth with people having additional comments um can we meet to have this discussion and bring an expert to tell it was the best we are not going to ourselves decide that it was not a point of
conversation actually we don't have it in the agenda today what we have in the agenda in is my proposal to consider the tree replacement plan what we don't have today is discussing whether the the trees come down or not so what I would suggest uh commissioner Amsler is it
seems like there are two pressing matters for you right yes um the Police Issue correct which again I'm I'm certainly not prepared to discuss it today because I I just I got this yes and uh and the tree issue so perhaps you know through the through the manager
reach out to the mayor yes and see if he will call a special meeting I'm fine I think it's important and I would I'd be more than happy to attend uh but I think that that's the best I appreciate got something to say what's up very quickly just under your under
your um your code um either the mayor or four Comm or four Commissioners can call a special meeting okay so you have enough commissioner seated right now if if you have a consensus to call a special meeting on I'm happy to call a special meeting if you guys want to do it uh and I'm happy to check now when we
can do it okay great so there you go special meeting when do you guys want to meet is that a consensus of all four yes I I I didn't hear yes so I'm I'm I'm leaving on the 13th
and back on the 20th so the last week of March I'm I'm I'm here all all uh all that week I can do Wednesday Thursday this week so tomorrow and the day after and the following week the mayor's the mayor's
sick I I I to I would want that too okay so next week so it would be I'm available to do it next week I'm here at 10 11 no I'm actually busy on the 10th 11th and 12th
the 13th I leave or so so 11 so 10 11 or 12 I'm open I will make myself available if so for me ideally it would be the 12th if if that works for I don't know looks like yeah I'll be zoom on 12th 12
okay but it's uh it's a uh the 12th is a Wednesday you're good okay excuse me there's a Code Compliance the 12 no there's a Code Compliance meeting on the 12 there's a Code Compliance meeting so
can we have the meeting earlier if you can do it before I can move I can they start at six o'clock cannot not under sorry under your code you cannot because you're gonna cannot do what if you're to take legislative action you cannot it has to be at six o'cl it has to be in
the evening yes in the evening okay so we can do Wednesday um Wednesday is the 12th oh uh that's the 12 the 11th the 11th I I I I can move some things around
the 11th okay is the 11th open before you get into I'm on available the 11th so so forget the 11th he's unavailable all right um then let's guys and then we're going to have to shoot for uh the uh the last week of March can
you not do the 10th the 10th I'm I'm the 10th I'm busy not okay then is is no bueno actually you know what hold on let me let me see something you're you're not available t Okay so let's shoot for
the the last week of March that's that's the only thing we can I'm I'm here the entire week whatever whatever day can you do via Zoom or you because you don't need to be in person if you're or or you can be available at all for a few hours no no I'm saying the following week he's
traveling no I I I I'm GNA be drinking a lot of teila so I'm not going to be good on Zoom or anywhere else okay I get you um all right so you tell me when you guys are I'm making myself the last week the last week I'm here the entire week so you guys pick question just a
question that are the trees to be continue to be cutting down until we have this meeting or we going to have well it there was a recommendation you know back and forth given a lot of emails to reconsider and actually I believe the manager instructed that we were going to wait until the nest season
it ends so I don't think there is an urgency as in terms of the next week is going to come down if this is a decision that we need to make in that meeting then it it's to happen before the end of the the month but I think the direction was and Mr manager if you can correct
that didn't you say that that would take effect the remaining trees we're going to wait yeah we we uh commissioner we made that determination that day yes we also told the residents and we told the vendor that day all right so let there's also some I have to review all right so
can we pick the last week of March please you tell me any day available 25 26 27 so any 25 26 27 pick any there you want what days are available 25 26 27 you're good on those on those days uh commissioner Sam are you good on those
days I'm good on okay 6 o' 25 25th I'm in why don't we give 25 26 27 to the mayor and see if which one he's available because we we're speaking for him he's not here I I will be open to me any of those three days give that that range of dates and that we let the mayor weigh in as
well I will can send an email out to everybody I will okay cool perfect there you go good good suggestion all right are we good all right can so we're going to move forward so um village
reports no because we didn't have a you we didn't have a consensus on the on the agenda so we have to go through the agenda as is so Village manager report and then building department vice mayor can we take a five minute break before absolutely thank you five minute break
that your right [Music] years imagine if they out the whole Tre Avenue in Miami Beach I don't know this is the thing I know you know
andot Australian the biggest millionaire Street in Miami Beach find R and they will never in million years will take it and they will say oh because it's going to fall in A50
million thank you for sharing your thoughts I apprciate I man any then the other is is not capable to to inspect it to
say oh it was not activity these are migrated actually I didn't know that the were they show up that day now remember EnV so they Circle they
time so it has to be inection is it was a lot just pay $40 to clean my car I have a vintage damper that I paint and now it's all red which I
don't e e e e e it's we're gonna give the she's GNA send that an email and give a range for uh 25th 26th and
27 I think we're all open for all those three days or something right yes and that there will be an agenda to include two topics the police department and uh related to the tree you're going to include yes if you want to include the whatever whatever else you want I think
we we need to touch based on what the next steps are on the tree yeah um there is a discussion about a plan for replacement but this specifically about what's happened to the ones that are left this we have to do it in the next meeting yeah all right
quiet okay are we good are we uh recording everybody's uh all right great okay so um we're going to V uh to the reports commission manager report first yeah good evening um M um vice
mayor members of The Village commission I would like to thank commissioner Gonzalez for submitting his name for the vacant Village commission seat his knowledge of the his knowledge of the business world and being a longtime Village resident serves the village well we thank him for
his commitment to the village and we look forward to working with him on important issues faced in the village uh during the month of February six ltc's were issued concerning various incidents that occurred during the month uh will we continue to issue these to keep the mayor and Village Commissioners informed
when incidents occur as we move move forward and revamp our website I hope to be able to post these LT ltc's on the website for public to see uh during the month of of February we held our strategic planning session in which the
upcoming 2526 budget was discussed the meeting was held a half a day on Friday and a full day on Saturday I wish to thank our department directors for attending contributing to to the discussion on our needs and not just on our wants I also thank the public that attended and gave up their Saturday at
attend this important important process our strategic planner her Marlo will be finalizing his report in the upcoming week and then we'll be making a presentation on that report in April I thank him for taking out uh time time out from his busy schedule to meet with
us and help facilit facilitate this process uh I recently sent out an email from our state lobbyist that provided an update on the mayor's trip to Tallahassee as well well as our Appropriations requests one of the sponsors of our Appropriations is
Senator Anna Maria Rodriguez she's the she's not the senator from our district but has graciously agreed to sponsor the request she's on the Appropriations Committee for agriculture environmental and general government she's a longtime friend who has supported me throughout
my career and I want to thank her once again for assisting the village of miscan park with our Appropriations request from our outside consultant continues to work on updating the Village website with respect to our minutes for the commission meetings we are up to date for
2025 we identified the minutes that are missing for 2024 and 2023 those minutes should be on the agenda for April for approval uh with the resignation of our former uh police chief I've named captain Rosario
as acting Chief and while we conduct a Statewide search for our next police chief uh the position is being advertised on our website the fora Liga city city county Managers Association and website those three Statewide um
websites I'll be uh issuing detailed L LTC on the interview process as we move closer to the end the month also I I hope that you had the opportunity to meet our new part-time Captain Carlos Avala who's sitting in
the back of the room raise your raise your hand Carlos uh who brings F forward a vast amount of experience having been in law enforcement close to four years we thank him for his interest in biscan park and look forward to working with him on a closer basis as we continue continue to improve the level of police
services we provide to our residents thank you for your time you um building vice mayor building's not here C compliance I saw Daren yeah she's here nothing to say the report all the
reports are are attached to the agenda just if there's any questions Perfect all right um I'm sure Finance has something to say no Park and Recreation nothing all right you already talked you talked for three
hours okay we're good uh police department all we're good I guess right unless we have questions for the gentlemen public works the same okay so that's that for that craer Jack yes commissioner reports that's right go
ahead commissioner reports anybody have a report good evening felow Commissioners staff and members of our community thank you for being here today for your contined commitment to transparency and integrity in our
government I want to express my deep concern and alarming regarding the recent decision made by our manager being involved in the process to hire an attorney to investigate himself this is this action raises huge questions and concerns about
transparency count commissioner if if I may that that's not accurate I I I retained the outside firm to conduct an investigation into the allegations that were made against the manager the manager didn't hire a firm to do
that just just so the record is very clear we change that's not that's not accurate at all thank you me okay for this attorney being okay but this action raises huge questions concerns and transparency accountability
and a proper process that must be followed to maintain public trust let's be clear this decision is not oversteps decision not only oversteps the established procedures of this commission but risk involving very Foundation of confidence that our
community places in us as their representatives the way this hiring was conducted without prior discussion approval or transparency given the appearance of backdoor process that is unacceptable first and foremost any
investigation involved in the conduct conduct city manager manager or the police chief must be an independent and free from any potential conflicts of interests allowing manager to be invol or and attorney to be involved in this process
even with the attorney and engage an attorney to investigate his own actions compromise the Integrity of the investigation from the outset no individual should have the authority to influence or control the inquiry into their own conduct secondly this matter
should have been brought directly before this commission for discussion and a formal vote as Commissioners we have the responsibility to ensure that all our actions taken on behalf of our community are open transparent and subject to
proper oversight the failure to do so undermines our Authority and disrespects the trust that our constituents have placed on us to address these concerns I'm calling for the following actions a full and transparent disclosure of the
circumstances surrounding the hiring of this attorney including terms of Engagement the scope of the investigation and the decision-making process that led it to this action an immediate subvention suspension of any investigative activities conducted by
this attorney until the commission has the opportunity to review and approve the process in public format the appointment of an independent investigator once selected by this commission not by individual on the scrutiny to ensure that the
investigation is impartial credible and above reproach this should be done by Seal process bid process through the village clerk I would recommend five coal bids
in this case present it to this to the clerk then to the mayor would open it up at a special commission meeting where the commission would select the lowest bid this is not about casting blame prematurely but about ensuring that our
actions reflect the highest standards of accountability transparency that the public rightfully demands it is important to restore the confidence that the decisions made by this B body are fair impartial and free from undue
influence in closing I urge the fellow Commissioners join me in addressing the matter swiftly and decisively let's demonstrate to our community that we were not tolerate actions that threaten the Integrity of our governs and diminish The public's trust thank you
vice mayor can I just respond just so the record's very clear I was gonna ask you to respond so under under your Under The Village's employee rules if an allegation is an employment related allegation is brought by an employee of
the village against against anybody other than the manager that complaint goes to the manager and the manager has the obligation to initiate an investigation either internally or through an independent third party if
the employee makes an allegation directed towards the manager himself the your your employment rules specifically require that that complaint is not directed to the manager because they are the subject of the complaint
that it's directed to the Village attorney which is what has happened in this situation as it relates to your former police chief as a result of that allegation being made I went out and retained an independent Law Firm to conduct the investigation into that
allegation as is my responsibility under the rules as that have been approved by this by your for well former commissions that have been adopted by former commissions that are codified in your personel rules with regards to the allegations that you've heard tonight
and I'm not going to go into detail but with regards to the allegations you heard tonight from Mr Navaro who was a former deputy chief in the police in the police department here there were there was a meeting that was held with Mr childis and myself and
um and Mr Navaro I can tell you that I was remote as I was out of I was out of the South Florida at the time but I appeared remotely Mr Navaro provided documentation that he wanted the The Village to consider I had an opportunity
to review that documentation and based on that documentation I had conversations with the manager and um and the manager ad heeded my advice that he not be involved in that investigation in any way shape
or form that he allowed me to retain the services of another outside separate independent investigator who was separate from the the law firm that is doing the investigation into the allegations
brought by former Chief steel um I have reached out to several and and again I understand the budgetary constraints of the village I've reached out to seever several individuals and that investigation is a little bit different it's not necessarily an employment
related where it requires a lawyer but it requires somebody with investigative skills as well as internal affairs experience I have reached out to several individuals um I have ultimately after interviewing several individuals and and
um investigative firms I have chosen an individual who has a long history in law enforcement but not in Miami day County they're actually a long history of law enforcement in Broward County and the reason why I selected somebody in in
Broward County as opposed to Miami day County um not that somebody within Miami ad day County couldn't do an excellent job and get do an unbiased investigation but my my choice to go out of the county was because several of the possible
witnesses that would need to be interviewed in that investigation are Miami day law enforcement either present or past Miami day law enforcement and I wanted to make sure that there was no connection whatsoever between the
potential investigator and any the witnesses so I tomorrow morning I am meeting with this individual and he we are we're going to discuss the terms of of an agreement which we essentially have the terms pretty much worked out
there's one or two things that we need to discuss um I expect that I will be providing him with a with an agreement um in which he will conduct you know agree to conduct this investigation I'm expecting to have it by tomorrow afternoon
I can tell you that I'm working under the manager's procurement Authority which is anything under $10,000 these are Professional Services they do not need to go out to bid under your under your purchasing code and that um these investigations are well one
investigation has already started the one that was brought by former Chief steel and the one that has been brought by um former assistant chief Navaro will be started very very shortly and when I say very very shortly within the next
couple of days so Mr childres has not in any way been involved in the ultimate selection of either of those firms and I quite frankly take my responsibility seriously um and I will also I also state so it's very clear because there
was um somebody in the audience I don't remember who had mentioned that it was Mr child's decision to bring this investigation um regarding former Chief steel that's been lodged by by um Robert Navaro that
that's not correct it's actually just the opposite Mr childr didn't believe it was necessary to conduct the investigation and based on the allegations that Mr Navaro brought and based on the documentation that he presented and I'm
not making any assumptions whether it's true or not because an investigation has to be done but based on the allegations if they're true they need to be investigated and they need to be dealt so that was a decision that I made based and that we're moving
forward based on my Direction with regards to that investigation so were you're saying that this is under $10,000 he's allowed to hire I mean he's allowed to because without a bid are you saying that this is not going to go over 10,000 because here the problem will go over $10,000 you're going to come in front of
this commission and ask for more money you think this commission is going to say I'm sorry we're not going to issue anymore money no I don't I don't expect that I I'm hoping that the I'm hoping I've had discussions with both both um the firm and the investigator I've
talked to them about the budgetary constraints um based on the information that we know we believe we all believe that it can be done within the ma within the $110,000 range based on what the hourly rates are the law firm that has
agreed to do the investigation based into the allegations brought by former Chief steel has considerably reduced their rate their hourly rate below what they would normally charge knowing that the village is um constraints their e
their financial constraints and so so has at this point so has the investigator be conducting the other investigation however to your point what they are instructed and what's in their agreements is that if it's if it appears
that the cost of the investigation is going to exceed the 10,000 excuse me the $10,000 cap they are to notify me and yes under your code I am required to come before this commission and and explain that for whatever reason the
amount ran over and that I need authorization to to to continue on with the investigation and no sir I don't expect the commission to say to me we're not going to pay for it and don't investigate but that's the process that's the process that's the process we
followed was within your code um I take these allegations very very seriously and I believe they need to be investigated and they need need need to be done in a transparent way first of all and in a way that there is no appearance of impropriety or any
appearance of bias so that the outcomes when when the residents and public and and this commission have an opportunity to see the outcome of these that they have confidence in the results of them and that that's the process that we followed and I will stop speaking at
this point thank you all right um any other reports from the any other Commissioners uh I would just um I had a report but I honestly I need to reply to commissioner Samaria that uh so what you
repaired in your report was not accurate and it was derogatory towards the manager in an unaccurate way that's the second time from this dis you have said something that was not I understand but when it's wait wait wait wait time out time out time out
time out guys wait wait commissioner Samaria he didn't interrupt you while you were talking let him talk okay well wait he's he's he's he's he's not he's he's he's asking you a question no he's not you can't ask me no questions no okay well I I will frame it this way
frame it I will frame it this way commissioner samaria's comments were inaccurate and they were derogatory towards the manager that is the second time he is satad at this dis and said something that was inaccurate and derogatory towards a manager by all means if he has something that is accurate that he would like to share
with the commission I would love to hear it but when it's get the emails from these from this you commissioner Sam you gotta let him finish then then you oh for the LA let okay but let him talk and then you can talk he always has
a my facts do you like wait wait wait do you like people to interrupt you when you're talking no right let him finish then you can then you can finish then you can talk to him back go ahead thank you vice mayor that that's all I have to say that I just want on record that that was inaccurate and derogatory in an in
inaccurate way that is the second time that it's happened because I got the email from the attorney that says it's exctly okay okay commissioner Amsler do you have anything you want to share thank you um I was just saying I wanted to say
thank you to commissioner uh Gonzalez to consider doing this for another four years and that he might be a little crazy to consider it um but thank you very much to everybody that came and uh went through the paperwork with with the
clerk to try to see if they can qualify thank you keep trying we need you uh number two I wanted to say thank you to Mayor Alexis Loom I don't know if you guys were invited to the north Miami uh Music Festival this year um I couldn't
make it and I apologize I told them um but I really appreciate the the gestor of invi and I'd be part of that Community as well um I was contacted by um I don't know if you guys were about their doing a research about resiliency in the cities and what we do to actually
be resilient I have a conversation uh scheduled for later this week but my I will obviously not speak for the commission I just want to know what this research is about if anything I think we could really benefit to hear from them
how we can Implement best practices happening out there um there's so much room for us to do more in this area so I'm I'm looking forward to that and I'll connect with you after I hear more um we defined the emergency meeting and
then yes I I wanted to make a note there were two I didn't feel very comfortable and I think I said it out loud during their strategic planning session I am very thankful that we did meet with all the the heads of the department so it's always great to hang out and speak with
you and um I my feedback was you know the first day I was only able to come here Friday uh not Friday and Saturday I would have loved to be Saturday but there was no one there and I felt odd
and my main question was was this communicated properly and the answer is no we have a resolution in place actually resolution 2024 d8 I believe um Pamela if that's the right number 20248 right that talks about where these
things need to be advertised how long the agenda and that didn't happen and I think it was a missed opportunity again to have people come over um gather advocacy so we don't get push back later on um Danielle thank you for coming you were the only one Danielle's
Huntington's wife um and on Saturday I believe Miss Anderson was there and I called her and I said how did you find out and she said through Danielle and I was scouting through the website so I think again we need to make sure we push this the proper ways and we Define those
ways that didn't happen so um something's going to come out of that but those are opportunities for for residents to come forward and speak their mind uh same thing with the election I think we felt sure I was calling as many people as I knew had ever shown interest of considering doing
I got turned down for by 99.9% of that that's why I'm so thank you you said yes uh but you know we need to advertise qualif qualifier not just the election which is what's stated on on our on our rules and procedures I
think that's something I will be looking into to see how we can retouch that to make sure it's across the board qualifiers announced the same way that the election day as well that's it keep it sure thanks perfect thank you so much all
right moving on um do we have a motion on the consent agenda motion to approve consent agenda we have a second that was already done no oh have a second
all right uh so let's vote on it right need a vote that's what I just vot oh yeah not not a roll call vote just consensus consensus sorry yay can I make a a a change to the agenda because then
we we go through this I'm trying to see process I'm sorry um I was going to ask to defer the item related to the GMS presentation polls presentation if we can have that as a PowerPoint presentation and have you lead it so
that we can have an interaction with you that's what I was hoping to see today that's what I requested and spoke with you about today uh instead we have an item uh for approval um and that was not the idea the idea was that we would have a conversation how this would look like
um I would rather have that opportunity to do it in that manner than just jump into the approval of of the this uh resolution so I would ask to defer to the next meeting not remove it I'm asking to defer it to the next meeting
so that we can have that conversation in the format if I may um commissioner to be fair to commissioner Samaria he want asked to have an item removed of consent agenda while we were discussing consent agenda just a meeting or two ago and we
informed him that that was not allowed because that has to happen during addition delici and withdrawals okay I'm sorry and that's why I wasn't sure it was a prop you that that that presentation would be but to be fair to commissioner Samaria because his item was pulled I
would support not to do that I would also point out that this item was in error uh approved by our prior Village manager correct so we're already paying that $30,000 correct we already agreed whether or not we said yes to it we never agreed to it that's the thing I
understand but somebody agreed for us okay so we need that's urgent thing I actually asked for this to come in front of us in the December meeting it was push until March to have the time to elaborate it which is today um but it's not in the shape or form that I was
expecting it so again sorry I'm not following procedures the right way I would have liked to have the discussion so that's what oh maybe an alternative path forward is is because we can't remove it off DE commissioner Samaria is we make that request to the Village manager to have that presentation for
the next Mee I think that's fair for everybody I agree I can fair to you but thank you yeah yes
okay okay would have the presentation for us okay can I get a vote please yes consent I mean good yeah vice mayor yes one question can we just verify what
um what you would like to see in that presentation because Paul's here and um we're going to get to the point right no matter what I mean it's part of the Pres it's part of the agenda we're going to get to the point I think uh Village manager's question was what what
specifics would you like to hear so so that takes me back to an email sent to you in October conversations haven't had with you Mr manager about what I was expecting and it's not this it was a flowchart we talked about roles and responsibilities we talked about
outlining each role who does what I think this is not it yeah yeah because um the finance director made a presentation I believe in uh January January you made a present report to
council I think the missing point is the actual presentation that should have been on the agenda tonight was given to you in advance of this strategic planning so that it could be part of that process for whatever reason you you haven't seen it sounds like but it was sent out I haven't seen it and I don't have it in the agenda for today that's
the problem so tonight I was going to present that formally but it did it wasn't on the agenda again so I can't present it because it wasn't on your agenda it's not fair to the public as far as the contract that's just paperwork that was already approved no big deal I will be happy to come back at
your your next available meeting I don't think I can come to your special meeting I don't think that would be appropriate anyway uh and I I'll give you the the full presentation the things you just described are sitting in my presentation right on my lap right now I'll make sure you get another copy thank
you okay so we're good yes thank all right Perfect all right so we're moving on to discuss B business that's this is yours uh commissioner Hunnington so you want to yes okay so um this was brought
up last in January uh when the uh Village manager came to our employment he uh brought up to me that we don't don't charge impact fees and this is something that a lot of other municipalities do they charge for different things in new construction new construction buildings uh for parks and
police Public Works roads uh it seems like something that we should definitely be exploring and I'm sorry you said the manager told you this the manager showed me that we didn't and that and he told me about it so I went out and did my own research and sure enough like HSC says there is a quite a number of
municipalities that have not or do charge these things and we historically have not so I think it's a good option to explore I think it's something we should look into we should uh look into conducting a have a study conducted to see what feasibility what feasibility we
can do to charge impact fees here in the village whether or not it's appropriate for us charge for police Public Works we have to justify it I spoke with the village attorney multiple times on this uh we have to justify it so we have to get that study to see what Avenues we
can charge but I think it's a great idea for an additional Revenue I know we talked to strategic plan about diversifying our revenue for the village and these new construction houses are putting an impact on our community they're changing our impact they're make they're bu they're knocking down smaller
houses and building larger ones but I think it's a great idea to bring in new Revenue that can help uh fix our village when it comes to these large developments that we're having in the you know that are being being built you're saying that impact fees for new
construction right and that wouldn't have to go into the building itself into the building department uh general fund and go to somewhere else no there uh maybe the attorney seems I want to touch on it but there are fees that are that are
assessed to the the uh permit applicant for specifically use for roads oh I see Recreation uh Public Works police and they can only be used for those assignments that they're that they're they're they're feed for uh and we have
a certain time limit we have to use them by six years we have from the moment we charge we have six years to use them so there's a time limit on it but it's money that we've that other municipalities are collecting that we're not and it's it's I think it's a great way of diversifying our Revenue like Revenue
is there a question I'm sorry no I thought you had something you wanted to purp yeah so the purpose of impact fees and uh the commissioner and I have have talked about this privately is as he's explained um if you have new
construction within the village that creates impact on on the village infrastructure to the extent that there needs to be improvements or modifications to that infrastru structure as a result of of of
of that impact from that construction then you can assess these impact fees what they require is um there's there's statutory requirements with regards to notice how they're passed but they will require you to um to hire an expert to
do an analysis to determine whether or not these are reasonably connected to whatever or has a racal NE Nexus whatever it is that you're trying to to alleviate the impact of so it's not a situation just just for
an example you have discussed numerous times that you need to improve your roads that your roads are in repair need need and they need work you can't use impact fee money bring to repair your roads because that's already an existing condition you you basically collect
taxes in order to do that if you were going to if that's what purpose if that's what you were trying to do that more of a special assessment than it is in an impact fee an impact fee traditionally is usually let's say for instance you have um destroyed medians
or high-rise just easiest example to understand a bunch of high-rises within your community which I understand is not going to happen here and because of that the roadways the number of trips that those those structures those condominiums or apartments will will cause to your roadways require your
roadways to be widened turn Lanes things of that nature that's that would be an impact for the from the new construction and you can impose fees to to raise funds to to to do those improvements so does any any Improvement qualify for this fee so if would any
sort of improvement to my house or any construction that I'm making if I understood correctly would be subject to the fee as an impact fee what would what would qualify me as Beyond um you know and that's and quite frankly
that's what you need the expert for yes the expert would have to do that analysis okay and um you would also um based on our retainer agreement that we have with the village that's a financing program and there would be legal costs
as well um from the from the legal side as far as drafting ordinances and um and doing what's legally required and quite frankly I'm not an expert in it we have we have an attorney in our yeah I'm I'm just curious as to who who would qualify as an expert on impact fees that that
just there are experts out there are experts on impa there's I'm sure there's an expert for everything and we've been hiring a lot of them lately um Al you were going to say something no no I just uh vice mayor thank you just to answer what um commissioner Amsler had had asked it's all it's for all new
construction so exactly what's happening in the village where we have a 12200 foot square foot house that's being demolished and you now building a 5,000 ft house so that 5,000 ft house has a bigger impact on the village than that
1,200 square foot house you have more people living there and so that they're they're paying an impact fee for that five for that new construction it's not if I'm putting an addition on my house I'm not putting a new roof on my house no just all new construction okay yeah that answers the
question so it's it's not just any renovation that I'm doing in my house would be subject to this is more a big impact of a new construction so if I tear down a house and I start from fresh um then will qualify it okay and commissioner if I will I think I share
your concern is I would not want to uh impose a fee on our residents who are just trying to paint their house or put a new kitchen things like that but that's not what these fees would be geared towards they'd be geared towards that large construction site that's knocking down an old you know 1950s house and building or mcmansion as we
like to call it uh the you know 5,000 foot house that that we would never dream would be here in biscane park that's typically developers that are coming in not uh residents building those and they're they're uh making quite a bit of money off of our municipality by building these large
things and they're creating an impact and a strain on our our municipality and that's what these fees are aim towards yeah do we know if um like neighboring communities are doing it like Miami Shores uh elportal stuff like that I know the first time I heard about this
what was when Manny Sid came over as a who Manny Sid was a candidate running for the same position that Mr childis is now sitting in he was wanted to be an interim uh Village manager and he was a
mayor until past November of uh Miami Lakes Miami Lakes yes um I said it right now he's working under um the County Commission under uh mayor cabba so he mentioned that he came for with a impact
fee that had helped tremendously in terms of Revenue that's where I had my node mentally came from that um uh has benefited the city and I think again we are not we're not the same as Miami
Lakes right we don't have commercial we don't have buildings but we have an impact I'm going to give you an example if you guys go to ALDI this drives me crazy you go to ALDI from the village right near my house you take 107th do
you not go over those Paths of concrete I saw it fresh and I still regret because I was going to the doctor not having a fun call and say can you can someone pick it up it's going to turn into um a mountain that can go into your
car it it's really eroding the freshly paved street that happened few years ago that is an impact of a cement machine going through through uh a 107 right and that those sort of Machinery heavy
machinery and a road a roads of different way than it would be a contractor coming to your house to do carpentry so I'm giving very you know direct opposite examples but I think that's where we said I love this idea I think we need to be smart about revenue
streams and I think I would want to know more of examples and impacts in terms of revenues that's created say if we look back at our last year and how many homes have actually been turned down and buildt up how much money would have this
me meant say the impact pH 2% I don't making it up and that gives us an idea if the trends continues to be that that could be an important Revenue stream for us I was going to ask you do we know how that's calculated oh I think your question of how many houses were knocked down and rebuilt in last year there's seven houses approved by Planning and
Zoning to be razen yeah uh that would be our expert would conduct that study for us to come back to us and let us know what we can and cannot charge okay so um can you find out I don't I don't know if you'd already know but uh if Miami Shores and elportal are doing this and
can you just ask the question Al of how these fees are calculated because you know while we we may think that it's a lot of money maybe it's not right and I don't listen money is money I'll take whatever I I get um but I also want to
know what the cost is to bring in an expert uh you know impact feed person whoever that is and never heard of him but uh with that would cost the village right so if that's going to cost us $10,000 and we're going to make $1,000 a year yeah I don't want to spend 10 years
chasing $1,000 so um so I I I would just like to know to see if you can get some information before I mean for me uh if you don't if you don't mind getting me that information from uh from the shores and from melport tal and see uh and I'm
I'm fine with with uh you know getting a you know talking about this and uh and and and getting every dollar we can but I want to do it smart you know I and to add to that for me would be the that line right I I get we need an
expert to Define it so that's my question in the air that I hope and this expert can answer what is the line of the new construction are we talking the 50% that we you know if you have 50% of your houseing it's to tear down and start from Fresh So that would be the
impact that on top of your building your you know new home uh you are going to be charged at this impact fee I'm I'm just trying to understand that clear line of who is affected by it the expert right and are do we know in any way how much
money could this person cost us no no commissioner you know uh as as you have heard tonight we're small City Limited funds we always start the conversation with that before we would do anything we
would bring back to you a report on what the other smaller cities are doing what what you know are they making any money is is this worthwhile before we go forward perfect I agree to and also I'll provide the manager an estimate of legal f as well so because that's something
you need to factor in because there is definitely going to be legal fees regards to doing that that's very very true well you just and the manager is going to bring back that report but just to give you guys a little thought about think I did a little curser look through
municipalities around us and North Miami or North neighbor is $ 5,692 per uh new construction so time seven it starts adding up over the years think of how many houses you've seen knocked down and rebuilt the money adds up um North Miami is a bad example
though because that's a big b big buildings we don't got none of those all right so um any any other discussion on on this topic all right so we're gonna get uh we're going to get some information back from you at the next meeting uh Mr
childr thank you sir all right uh let's move on to uh discussion on Australian p uh Pine replacement plan couldn't that item be moved um I think we already approved the agenda
anded so leave it up to her if you want no no I think yeah uh thank you for that I think they're just to separate issues mine was trying to move forward again from where we are and um how do we move forward for what just happened we spent
$120,000 on a vendor to remove 38 trees and now we have to reforest pretty much so um the idea here is that I gather consensus from you all to make this a priority when it comes to
budget um I want to make sure that we set aside an amount of money and we can talk about how much that is so that we can then go and match it against grants then we can go negotiate with North it doesn't matter what we do to save the
money later on for something else but it is not touch because again it's part of the essence of who we are and we need to have a plan that is thoughtful the first approach came from the manager in one of my meetings he um gave me the name of the farm um to ask for private donations
right can can we get trees to reforest and the first thing to my mind when I hang up after the call was we need a plan that is us again we have a parks and Parkways board there is a reason for the board to exist this is the perfect
opportunity for Community engagement and I don't want leftover trees I don't want us to be whatever you can you know you don't have the free stuff I want the trees to fit the village and I think it's a beautiful project for them to
lead so I am proposing that we formally appoint the parks and Parkways to come and frame a tree replacement plan um I propose that we engage with professionals uh to get their input whether they're arvor environmental
Specialists Community stakeholders I talk to some of the residents that have so much knowledge um Danielle I mean already what she share I'm like wow you know this is an opportunity for that all of that to come together and the parks
and parway does it for free for us um Joe has a lot of information too you'll probably help us so you're going to be welcome suggestion you're going to be invited to that um but the community still already showed interest you know some of the residents are like I'm willing to put my hand into that and
help out um we have to think forward in the right way so I think again if we have to put money because we need to pay an arvor is to save the tree needs you know AB andc let's do it now now before we're planting the Rome tree and then
we're here again again 5 years from now identify appropriate tree species that will thrive in our local environment and ensure budget allocations align with the goal of replenishing the canopy um so again what I was I was trying to go around what the money is so I did some
uh qu I Shar some questions to um Paul and his team a lot of money spent cutting trees that they were able to identify uh but there was a money showcase as to us planting trees and I'm sure it's categorized somewhere as sharing uh
shared but they're probably somewhere they couldn't find it uh they could be in the grants you know area we've done the grants in the past I know that uh but I wanted to know feedback from first from the manager perspective as to what we have currently in the budget and I
think the answer is going to be zero because of the current spend we went through um but uh also you know from you guys what do you think it's appropriate from the history we had allocated $115,000 in the CIP specifically to
replanting uh that was used for trees uh cutting down so I'm I'm proposing that we start at least with the $50,000 to have an a mindset again this could be removed a grand you know it's 20,000 right there we just need 20,000
we get up to 40 if it's a matching Grand I don't have the number at hand and I think it's more background needs to be done you know and and and digging into those numbers but I want to have the conversation of the budget and and have a number in place um again that would
have been something to discuss uh during the strategic planning session you know um wait you're talking about the upcoming budget or or or currently no I'm talking about the current plan okay so financially you want to talk about it
now well I mean talk about it I want to know where the money can come from to be honest with you yeah I don't know how the administration budget sits or parks and Parkway sits after what went down and there there's an a topic to talk about how we spend the money if you remember in my last
meeting it was where is got money going to come from and it was from there so I'm not clear I don't have an Excel with me it wasn't provided for the agenda I either we have numbers where can this money come from I don't know and that's the job of the manager I want to
allocate budget against it this year if it's not possible to do it this year I want to understand why so you want to find $50,000 now to put in a plan and start beginning with parks and PIP plan then maybe we can start by before the September a new budget you know comes in
oober so uh commissioner we wish you were there on Saturday on the Strategic plan because we did discuss tree replacement plan um and we we as the commission came to the consensus that much like you talked about earlier tonight it's a good time to slow down that we talked to the manager manager
that there are no funds unfortunately because of this big budget constraint to fund it this year uh but to slow down really uh challenge the commission to go out and look for outside funding there's been a t ton of different ideas you know the the Landscaping uh the the nursery
that you approached yes residents have talked themselves about donating funds for Memorial trees I think those are all great ideas that should be fledged out um and that all takes time and that and we have to take some time anyway because if you read read the EMA from Derm they
we have the ground has to be treated so we can't throw a tree in the ground today tomorrow because the tree won't flourish it'll die yeah the Australian pine has polluted the ground with its own Australian pin yeah ter yes okay um so we we have time that we have to treat
the ground anyway that's time that we can do this the right way I completely agree with you I don't want leftover trees I want mature native trees right that are going to be beautiful for our community for decades to come I think that it's a great idea to have the next
budget start that plan I think we should give them some some parameters to work with Native being one uh working with the residents who live in those in affected areas because I don't live on 118 Street median I don't live on I live on 11 18th but I don't live on 119th on
correct correct the parks and Parkways members don't live near there and I've heard personally from residents I was going to talk about my my uh commission report that I've talked to Residents who live in those places and they said I want Oaks and I said well that's go to the parks and Parkways and tell them you
want Oaks because you live here and why shouldn't you get what you want happens to coincide with I approach a part of my also my my um commissioner report is I approach the the local aabon Society tropical oton Society what trees are the best to replace for the Yellow Crown
Night Heron and they said Oaks was one of the ones that when things start coinciding to me I go this sounds like a good thing but by all means I think we should uh include our parks and Parkways board we should give them some parameters native being one Community involvement being another and let's get
the process started let's challenge the commission to go out try to what however we can because if we get half of them donated we get two tree mature trees donated yeah but we we need to know so that's the fact that the TR the truth is you have different qualities of trees as well what you know you're going to get
donated the cheapest tree that's out there I'm not saying donate tree I'm saying donated funds to purchase streats okay money when I've when I've approached people so far for this said this is the funds we're looking for to purchase trees yeah because it should be bis Gan Park choosing what trees go in
there if a county wants to give us saplings thank you we'll take them in 30 years when they grow up into Big Trees right now they're too small they're this big um but I think that we should start the process now and by all means I think we should budget for 2026 to have in in
our budget but I think that we need the manager to go out and once he gets that plan from Parks and Parkways fledge out what exactly that's going to cost because I mean right now I throw $50,000 and it would just be a stab in the dark I think that's part of our budget process that the manager will get that plan from Parks and Parkways said okay
you're going to need 20 Oaks 30 Oaks whatever it is and he's going to formulate that I 100% agree for me it was just the idea of a priority to have in mind that money needs to be invested once and for all the right way um I did speak with the manage with the with the
residents as well in person I did as all of us did received tons of emails complaints about not being notified of this happen and what the effects of that is too right not only to the wildlife that we heard today but also the shade
uh the beauty uh their property value uh all of this is affected clearly by this uh and to your point there's residents that are far and you know disengaged not because they want to because they can't participate maybe with parks and Parks
way that's why we have aboard I think I am with you um I am not so much into telling people go and say you want an oak I'm more about let's hear what the parks and and Specialists recommend and then gather the input and advocacy from
residents with the knowledge on why that is and having that said because you know this is not for everybody to choose now what they want to see in their backyard or in the front yard for that matter is this is what's right for the village and there is a long-term plan for this and I've you know we we have many
stakeholders I spoken with some of them that been here many many years and the discussion has been there for the longest time so let's do it right um so as a next step and I agree with you let's have all this appointed to parks and Parkways let's search for what that
plan could look like I am ready to make some spend if we need some Specialists to come on board if we don't find it in any way shape or form for free have some hour is dedicated to someone analyzing what we have the condition of urrent
trees you know make sure that the whole plan is looking into consideration um the spaces that were now open with the Australian pines um and then why not some areas I mean they can they they don't necessarily just need to focus on
38 trees replacement is also the other ones that maybe have not been watered properly the ones that are close to dying they have you know we've gotten from Grants are not doing great if we're going to do the plan then just do the plan the whole you know the the the right way
so um I say we do that as an as a immediate action to the board and have them come back to us as the next steps in terms of timing together with what that would look like for Budget proposition commissioner I wonder you
brought a topic that I want to touch on as well is when I you drive 121 median and look at the trees that are going to be removed there they are planted so close together that when they were small that was probably a good idea but now as they are mature 100y old trees it's not if one them comes down they're all
coming down yes and like you said experts are weigh in I think that that kind of gets into when we start selecting vendors that they Supply design build style they they Supply the expert who will tell us how far apart to plant these trees yeah but 100% we need
an expert to say hey we may not need we're planting too dense I look good now but 30 years it's not going to look good yeah and some of uh the considerations I've heard from residents I want to be true to is don't give me a tree that is a 3ot Tall Tree in front of my house
because you couldn't make the investment of a 10- foot tree to start and then we're here 100 Years be you know obviously we're not going to be here 100 years from now not to see it and and obviously we're not going to bring the same majority of trees we took down but that's part of the consideration you
know um let's do it right so thank you for being with me on this I don't know if you guys want to add anything else to D that when you brought up again another thing a resident said to me was don't give me a three-foot tree don't give me a tree that looks dead half the year which which is part of the issue you
Knowles years ago and right now they look at them they look like sticks they think they're dead uh we should give we should take that as part as a consideration for our parks and Parkways to give trees that look beautiful year round not just at flower in sometimes and dead rest also the idea of the
vendors that we bring forward you know um and I want to be very uh respectful of what our Public Works does to keep those trees going and the effort of watering is it's a big effort and it costs money um then you know if it hasn't worked that we had a contract
that gave life to a tree for a year and then they disappear then make it two years what's the impact financially to do that they're responsible until the trees are settled the right way I'm making this up you know I don't know anything about trees but you know I'm I'm
just trying to understand if we haven't done it right let's fix it now it's the time okay John do we have a a watering truck do we have that no right yeah oh we don't have one John okay just
I don't have one okay there you go as I remember the last time we planted a bunch of trees the vendor themselves were responsible to actually water them uh for a certain amount of time yeah something like that right because we didn't have the capability of doing it which is a problem for us
because the reality is was great to plant them but we got to keep them alive right and maintenance has always been an issue for the village right um money we don't have the we don't have the infrastructure to yeah yeah yeah yeah I think we all
have intention here that we want to see these trees flourish we want to see them be beautiful and I think that's you know the manager can hear us talking I think we we either the plan is outside vendor Waters them yes or internally we allocate funds next year to to repair that watering trailer have a maintenance
plan maybe it's a maintenance plan year long that touches on how the and they're responsible replace that at the condition you know desired if it goes back I'm just interested in also knowing finding out you know we we removed how many or how many trees 30 yeah and those
were straight up trees that didn't have a a huge canopy we may end up having to only get 25 trees instead of 30 some trees that might be the plan then and because the canopy is much wider uh so so we may not end up having to replace
the 30 some trees right yeah but I that might might be the case but I think we should shoot for that 37 because as a resident pointed out to me during us talking to them we never replac as a village we never replace trees that were lost from Irma you know there's there's mature trees on this um median 11 18th
another one those trees were not replaced back to pre- Irma standards they showed me a picture of they were Stan Pines but they show me a picture of their median and said look what it looked like the week before iro and we never replaced those so if we only need to plant 25 I'm sure we could find a couple other places to plant the rest of them I think we should shoot high and
then if we come in and we only need the budget for 25 we shoot as high as the money high at the number we we we we took out replace that number because that that's the impact we we talking about impacts we cause an impact to this Village removed the 37 trees so even if
they don't go in the same spot as 37 trees came out we plant 37 trees throughout the village yeah that idea all right I final note and I have to say this again it was a very contentious item today we heard about uh it was the
will of the commission and the last meeting that that be done differently to cut the trees the direction was to hire someone with credentials um that would sort of be in the same um sentiment as a village and the
protection of wildlife I think this is an opportunity for us to think about what we can do so this doesn't happen again and that would be part of the conversation we're going to have in the special Commission meeting uh but thank you for the support for
this um did you want to talk about 13B the discussion of the funding or you already have all that information yeah U vice mayor that was actually my item so I just wanted to at the last commission meeting we said that we were we had
$81,000 budgeted under uh line item um 46.2 and then we're we're taking uh we're taking $40,000 out of repairs and maintenance transferring that M amount uh to cover
the $120,000 since it's all within the same Department it doesn't need to come before your approval but just wanted to let you know anybody have any questions on the funding situation I know that you wanted you were asking about that the last meeting
uh Veronica sorry give me one second one thing I want to just to clarify on the did we get when we went out to get this $120,000 bid did we have
bids from any other any other indiv any other companies all when that item came up I had spoke and I said that we had gotten uh because it was an emergency item and we were waving competitive bidding we didn't have to get quotes but we still
did get quotes we got we had uh um one quote that I think was significantly higher was almost $20,000 higher and then we tried to get a third quote it was nonresponsive so that was considered three quotes So we had no bids that were
lower than that in 120,000 no there was no if there was lower we would have taken them yes so my point on this was uh these are loose numbers to me in sense of they're reading down on a report I don't know what that means in terms of impact and my question last
month was not just where the money's effectively numbers coming from but what does it mean in terms of impact when um so there is an line item 46207 budgeted $155,000 for fiscal 2024
2025 what was that meant to do to be for Mr manager you have $15,000 what was the original purpose of those $155,000 so that that that original amount is the total is $80,000 is what
you're talking about you're saying here there is money was identified in the public works budget in object code 46200 for $81,000 line item 46207 budgeted $15,000 for this fiscal doesn't say what
was that for so what was what was $155,000 for under this code it it was just for um it was a line item for um certain maintenance of trees uh planting of new trees uh removal of Australian
pines that was all under that same budget code okay $80,000 that's total was $880,000 at toal yeah no it specifically here doesn't say what so for me again I appreciate you put it in a memo I I I had no doubt that you were kind to come out with a number and a
bunch of numbers that add up to $120,000 the question is the impact of that within the budget and the purpose that we budgeted for so for example in public works we had addressed um via public works uh manager that we needed
an additional set of hands and I asked does that mean we are going to be losing the extra set of hand we approved in order to be able to fund uh the trees at the time again we didn't have the data and um I have to to say this on the
record I did tell the manager this is part of coming together prepare for items they're considering an emergency um we have to have the information put together to be presented in a way that is clear so we can make the best decision possible and I did not feel
that happened last month so I appreciate it's happen now I'm just wanted to understand what we're sacrificing commissioner we we don't tend to sacrifice anything right now so if if if we if we are in need of money we'll have to transfer some money around again but
uh I don't I don't anticipate uh you know sacrificing any services or any projects no so for example we're transferring $40,000 from repair and maintenance that is uh object code 46,000 under the code there's two
different items equipment and building 30,000 what are there for right right so so the first first part of the um uh fiscal year I don't think we spent any money from that from that line item so there was nothing nothing taken out of that yeah but the second half of the
year if the second half of the year if we do then we'll we'll see where we have a surplus of funds if there's anywhere within that in the public works department that we have a surplus surplus of funds and we'll transfer that into there but you are you not
recognizing the $30,000 that you you moved what was that originally set for 40 $40,000 were repair and maintenance that was all repair and but for what for the roof for equipment for
yes just so General repairs doesn't say it doesn't specify it just says repairs and maintenance on on that code yeah but we did have again I want to be I I get it we had 12 hours of Bud workshops against this we went line item by line
item on the importance of having this filter this way okay so at this stage I'm not clear and it's it's put together here so I'll do my research with um Paul as Finance director at to understand again what this exactly where I'm
intended but I wanted to have Clarity whether are we going to have a worker additional to be out of Public Works or we're sacrificing that as part of this budget that that worker position we're still we're still looking at that how
best to utilize that position whether it be a a director and reclassify that to a director or or something else so we're still looking at that to deter okay all right that's it for
me so you didn't get your answer did you no but I'll figure it out okay I will ask around and get the numbers and I'll have further conversations to make sure I do but thank you all right all right so um that concludes our agenda
just to make one announcement just very quick quick you got two minutes go ahead less than just kidding less than two minutes less than 30 seconds just to let you all know just a stat quick status on uh the um the progress of the um
bulletin or the advertisement for the for the manager yeah I just as we've been sitting here tonight I just got a draft of the um of the broch sure uhuh Mr Basinger's firm great he's asked me to he's asked me to review it to make sure that you know there's any changes
or with regards to what the information since I don't I'm not intimate as to the information that's in there what I think I'm going to do tomorrow is share it with you all and ask you to just provide comments back to me individually obviously don't reply all I'll remind
you all that on email and then I'll submit those to M now oh what's that so if you don't know that by now yeah I know but I still it I got to do that and then I'll submit your I'll submit a you know a final document back to Mr basing so I just want to let you know that
thank you Brad much appreciated all right uh is there anything else that we need to discuss no so uh anybody wna motion to us out all right second all right I done thank you guys thank you