We had our sit down with EMS as a result of the buyout of the the steward system. Um, you know, it's questions that we were concerned of. Um, units having to go all the way up to Jackson uh north, units having to go all the way to Jackson South, etc. So,
my other question is, uh, I know your department has high water rescue capabilities, Yes. But they're kind of far from our municipality and with global sea level rise, flooding being a major issue here in Biscane Park, uh, is your department planning on expanding on those capabilities? I know last summer we had a need for high water rescue here
in the village and we we didn't get that service. So is that a a priority of your department to expand on those services as well? So whenever we have a a storm or if we're expecting a uh sign a significant amount of uh rain to be dropped in a
specific amount of time, we do deploy our resources. We play we place them in the northeast sector. We place them in the north sector and we place them in the uh the uh south sector. when the response or when the call comes in, the unit is dispatched. Now, just because there's a concern of some flooding and
we've had the calls where somebody, you know, we get to a call and it's not necessarily a call for flooding, but because it's, you know, water that's coming up to their doorway, you know, doesn't necessarily require high axle water vehicles. Our fire trucks, our rescue trucks can continue to respond.
So, when does it become an issue? Well, when the water is above, you know, the the wheel well, as you may know. So though we don't experience that often but when we do we deploy the the apparatuses you know strategically I know uh for a fact that uh one of the
units was deployed or staged at station 19 which is off of 7th Avenue and again when the unit is you know required the unit starts heading towards the the closest location. Uh we did pick up an additional two units from the uh army surplus that we are converting and
actually I believe they they finished converting them this uh or last month. So we should have a total of now I believe five uh high axle water vehicles that could be deployed you know throughout the county. But again just because there's water you know uh that
comes up to a resident's home doesn't necessarily you know mean that it is a high axle water vehicle response. So, thank you, Chief. My last question is, uh, with, uh, firefighter mental health and PTSD on the rise, uh, and the the new state of Florida House bill that was
just signed into law by Governor DeSantis, is your department going to be moving towards a rotating RDA schedule or a uh, 24 on 72 off schedule? Is that something you're guys going to be looking into? So, I know that part of the collective bargaining agreement is something that we have to actually sit down and and
review with the local. So the 24h hour 72 for those who may not realize we work 24 hours straight with a 48 hour off schedule. The the state legislature passed that you know all departments should look into the 2472. So reducing
the work week from a 48 hour work week to a 42-hour work week. Again there's a lot of factors that go into this including you know funding budget-wise. um you know it is something that we are scheduled to sit down with the local as part of the uh collective bargain agreement at the end of the month but I
I have to say that in regards to our mental health mental well-being uh behavioral health you know there are many avenues or many projects that have been put into place uh we work with you know the local and state uh and federal or not federal but national IFFF um and
I have to say that there are a lot of programs a lot of um opportunity unities for our own personnel and throughout South Florida um that could reach out for services through our department or through the local um but again specifically to the schedule that is a
it's going to be a multi-year you know project if it does go into fruition. Thank you chief. It's good to hear that you're going to sit down with the local Thank you. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Okay. So, having concluded 5A, let's move on to 5B, which is our presentation
uh for the police chief selection committee. I believe uh Howard is here with us. You have the floor. So, uh Mr. Mayor, as Mr. Goldman's coming to the podium, I would just like to thank him for being our chair of the
um police chief selection committee. uh him and uh uh three other residents had volunteered and Bob Anderson being one of them here uh is here tonight. But he u um Mr. Goldman's going to give give an overview of the uh of the process and
then we have two candidates in in the law cabin to tonight. We're going to ask them to each make a a fivem minute presentation and uh when um while one of them's giving the presentation, the other step out of the of the cabin and then also yeah, we'll have one on on
Zoom and then we'll put him in a in a chat room, I guess, until until he we're ready for him so that there you know that um it' be independent presentations. But I once again thank you, Mr. Gman for being here and and uh committing your time and and and uh
effort to make it uh ensuring this process was fair and transparent. Thank you very much. Thank you for that, Mr. Manager. Um first of all, good evening everybody. Residents, can you hear me there? There we go. Maybe just
there. Hopefully that's a little better. That's better. Um, so I was asked to come in and give you a recap of what took place and as we were brought in. So in mentioning their names, I'd also like to thank my fellow members of the bo of the commission
which were Coral Gable's police chief Ed Hudek, North Bay Village Deputy Chief of Police Sam Behar, BP Resident Bob Anderson, BP resident Trish Walker, resident Joseph Rche, and myself. Thank you all for your time as well. It was a
pleasure working with all of you and it made it more interesting and fun than work. So, it was terrific. We had originally had 20 potential candidates for us to review. We were tasked with
reviewing the resumes of the 20. We narrowed that down to a final seven, two of which had dropped out for their own reasons and what have you, which left us with five candidates. We interviewed those five and a of those
five we narrowed it down to final three which were Carlos Aila, Scott Israel and Dale Engel. Those three have been left with our village manager to make the decision and for you all to meet as well hopefully.
Um and we feel very happy with those three candidates that any one of them could be a great addition to the village. you have any questions for me? I do have one. Um, so I certainly echo the sentiment of the the manager that we
appreciate your time and chairing this board and all of our residents who were part of it and all all the folks that were part of that board because it's it's helpful to have kind of this uh independent process uh through this board. So, it's it's helpful and I'm glad to see it that it's this is not your first time here presenting this to
us. So, it's it's been transparent and I appreciate that. I do have one question. When when you say um we interviewed um the candidates, how did that work? Was that like as a board or was it each with each individual person on on the board spending individual time with each of those candidates?
It's a good question. It was it was a conversation and a and a growing conversation amongst us that brought about questions that we all put together. We came together with reviewed those questions with the professionals that were with us, the chief and the
deputy chief um who helped us quite a lot along the way. And then we brought those questions to one another. All agreed on the final questions throughout the pro through the process of interview of the five. We just went right down the
line of each individual asking each of us were asking the same question of the same questions. I mean and then just going along the lines of each and every one of us continue so that within that questioning period it didn't have it didn't seem like one person was
asking the question where the candidate would be looking solely at the one individual who was asking the question that makes sense. I hope so. Did I um that's helpful. I appreciate that. Um can can I just kind of understand
your thought process on this specific point? How important was it uh was it to you uh as as the chair of this board to have the um uh the the active police presence
through through the presence of of the chief and the deputy chief in assisting you through the process kind how would you categorize their involvement and their help? I know you mentioned that they were very helpful spec uh pretty significantly but just kind of want to hear it from you in your your own words how significant it was to have them a part of this process.
I thought it was most important. It brought a lot of insight. It helped us to understand not only what from the perspective from another police chief's perspective in their eyes, but also it allowed us some more insight into the interviewing
process of a candidate for police chief through their eyes who've been through this process before. So that was extremely helpful and I would recommend it for sure going forward any any time you have to do another kind of a vote like that bring the professional in of
that level whether it's fire whether it's whatever service it might be bring some of the top people in they can help they were terrific and that's helpful thank you and um does the board have a consensus or a position on on let me ask sorry let me back up
one step when did this start when did the process to start. How long have we been has the board been kind of vetting these candidates? It doesn't need to be precise. Um I would say that I was first contacted in the be the beginning of April. Okay.
And we had a couple of Zoom calls and then after the Zoom calls, we had our meeting to discuss the candidates and then we came into the village hall and met with the candidates. So we're now into July. So, it's been a good
three-month process. Okay. Um and um does the board have a position or consensus or anything any type of direction on where this process will go from here in terms of what in terms of we'll be speaking with these
these candidates? I mean, is there an idea to have them meet members of the public? Is there are there any I guess are there any firm dates from this date going forward that the board would recommend uh as far as kind of vetting and interviewing the the candidates remain? I think that that's a village manager
question. He can answer that better for you. Um we look forward to the opportunity of having the the village residents have a meet and greet is something that came up in the meetings and something that the village manager was strongly considering. What he's come to with that conclusion, I don't know.
Perfect. Howard, thank you so much. I'm gonna ask the commission if they have any questions for you. Thank you. Have a question. Hey, Howard. Hey. Um, without stating the stating any
any data, um, have you guys determined a kind of priority list of who you would like to personally see without obviously I think we all came to a pretty good understanding and agreement amongst ourselves whom we thought in what order would
probably best serve the community. Okay. But in fairness to to the village manager, we did not want to put him in a position to have that pressure to consider what we had thought. But there is kind of a consensus within the group. I'd say we got to about 90% of that.
Okay. Thank you. That's all. First, how just want to say thank you to you and your committee. I don't really have any other questions. I just want to say thank you. It's it's great to see resident involvement in this. I think this was a open, transparent, and uh a a thorough process, and I'm just glad we
we took this road this time, and I'm I'm glad to see it. Thank you. I I think I speak for all of us in saying that we all took great pleasure in being a part of this. We all got along quite well, surprisingly. Didn't have any
drama moments at all. And um I think we all felt very proud at the end of it to be a part of it. So, thank you very much for the opportunity. I yeah I just want to thank you for coming. Uh my only question that I have was um was these these meetings public? I mean was it
private? Was could residents have come to these meetings or was I believe that they were they were private meetings private meet that when the time was was right and the village manager feels that it's right that's when I think he was considering the opportunity for the meet and greet
others to be involved. Okay. Thank you. That's a So I we're gonna I I apologize. I don't want to I don't want to interject, but um we're going to have a public comment section if you want to come up and you want to ask the question at that time or
you can ask I think we're you can you I'm sure you can ask how I'm sure Howard would be I don't want to speak for you Howard, but I'm sure Howard would be happy to answer that question for you private. No, it's okay. No problem. Um I appreciate it, Howard. Thanks so much. Um I think we're going to we have our candidates here with us Mr. Manager. So we're going to give them a couple of
minutes if they want to come up and address the commission. So again, Howard, thank you and thank you to our board. Thank you, Howard. And just to um mayor, just to uh clarify, so the the uh we had two days of interviews. The interviews took place in in the log cabin that that
occurred on uh June 19th and June 20th. You know, we were uh um the committee had their schedule, the candidates had their schedule. So, we're uh trying to um make sure that we fil comply with everybody's schedule. Um, as you had
asked, we're going to in my manager report, I'm going to uh report that we're going to have a meet and greet for the committee, I mean for the community on uh on July 19th at the uh um at the parks and recreation facility. Issa
setting that up for coffee and donuts for uh in in the morning with each of the three candidates. So now if I if I could, we'll uh um if I could call up uh uh the first candidate, Carlos Zavala,
and then if if Mr. Israel could step out and then we could put Mr. Engel into a into a room or have to to log off and then come back in. Okay. Okay. So we're sequestered then. Yes.
Okay, sir. Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor, Commission. Uh, once again, uh, my name is Carlos Aila. I'm 62 years of age. I've been in law enforcement for over 44 years. I began
my career as a law enforcement officer in the city of Miami in 1981. I uh progressed in in my career as a patrol officer. I was in a motorcycle officer and then from there I went to homicide where I spent 20 years in the
homicide unit investigating major major homicide uh incidents. Uh after that I was uh elected unopposed to go to the union and I went to the FOP as a vice president and I served there for six years. After
that, I was promoted to a senior executive assistant to the chief of police and I was there until I retired in 2011. The reason for my retirement is I took a place I took I took a position as second in command of the West Miami Police
Department. I served at the West Miami City of West Miami for 14 years, four and a half of which I served as a chief of police and retired again uh in 2024, July of 2024. Uh
I'm I'm I'm in an awkward situation here because I'm already working here for the department. I was contacted and asked to consider coming as the second in command here to assist in a in a situation there was here where there was a change in
chiefs and the experience was lacking and uh so I accepted the challenge after a lot of thinking. I had already heard about the village and um
I decided to accept it as a challenge. Uh I know that there was some uh personnel issues and some other administrative issues that were going on here and like I said I accepted it as a challenge that I think that I could do some good and
and fix the problems that were here. And what I immediately noticed after coming to work here is that uh my mere presence alone based on what I was able to see. Uh
the personnel issues weren't here. You have a great group of people here working in in the village. Really good policemen. Policemen will do what they're allowed to do. They're allowed to do things that uh aren't kosher, per se. Well, they'll
they'll they'll do it because they're like kids. They have to be led. So, having said that, what I can speak about is what I have been able to accomplish in the short period that I've been here from an administrative standpoint. Okay.
The first thing that I noticed is that we had a really serious problem with the equitable sharing program and that is the task force funds that are recovered under with seizures uh through an agent that we assigned to the federal
government uh working for us working for the village. Um none of the audits had been done, none of the checks and balances that you have to do to make sure the money's coming in. And as a matter of fact, they were going to basically shut
us down. So, we were able to go ahead and get those audits done. They were approved and we're back on we're back in check and we're looking at close to about $400,000 that we should be getting at sometime when the federal government decides to release it. Uh the offduty
employment policy, policemen were obviously working off duty. They've been working off duty for years for at least since 2017 that I can remember. I immediately made an interim directive where now they pay sir charges to the village for the usage of the uniform,
the police car and their their work. And as a matter of fact, today we received the first checks. We should be turning him over to the to the village finance department um tomorrow. So they are now paying sir charges for
the use of the equipment which wasn't being done before. uh FDM, Florida Department of Emergency Management, reimbursement for uh officers that were sent
uh to in reference to Hurricane Milton to the West Coast. Uh we were never paid, we were never given the money back for that for that situation. So, we immediately went ahead and uh started going, you know, doing the audits and
and sending in all the paperwork for FDM and we should be getting anywhere between $55 and $65,000 back soon. Uh fleet management overhaul. There was no control of the vehicles here. Uh I
don't know if you've noticed, but a lot of the police cars in this police department are unmarked. And that to me is a no no. Police cars should be marked. The citizens should see these police cars driving around and not wonder is that a cop or is that, you know, somebody else. So, we're working
on that right now. We the marking should be coming in pretty soon and we'll be able to have all the police cars marked. Uh we had some expired lease vehicles that we were paying for. We went ahead and took care of that too. Uh making some changes there.
uh a lot of uh payroll issues, discrepancies affecting full-time officers. Uh put it in protocols to prevent those things from occurring. Uh we had a lot
of misuse of funds purchasing things that we did not need and I was able to negotiate one of those things back to one of the uh companies that that sold us things and got a credit back to to
the city. uh had to look at all the vendors accounts when I saw that and we resolved outstanding balances by securing proper documentation, processing backlogged payments. Several contracts are being renegotiated to secure more
cost-effective agreements for the village uh and so on. A lot of a lot of things that we used that were just not needed or not getting paid for. We did an evidence uh room reboot which
is probably the most important thing we need to make sure that uh that a complete audit was done. We were able to do that and uh everything is accounted for that should be in the evidence room. That is extremely important.
Uh we were able to hire thanks to the uh manager we were able to hire one full-time policeman for that one full-time uh opening that we had. Some past accounts were reinstated which
were offline for a long time. We were able to sell at auction uh 10 police vehicles that were taking up space over at the public works department. Uh we were able to sell those and that
that money came back to the village. Also, the emergency uh preparedness is enhanced. Uh you know, we we got all the emergency management type situations down packed. So, if we do have a an issue,
we did some facility security upgrades. One I'm going to have to bring to the manager because it's going to cost some money, but we need cameras. The cameras are broken. They're not working. Our DVR is not working. And that's important that we have that in the police station. Um,
one of the first things that I did or and I asked permission to do was to promote a reserve officer who's been a police officer for 50 years and was a detective for 49 of those years to detective because we had no detective to handle
uh followup on on calls, investigations, and we were able to do that. and and now we have a wonderful detective that can he's he's just awesome. I mean he's great investigator. We had to do a lot of FDLE sieges audits
and those are, you know, when we run people out on the street, check check them on the computer and stuff like that. The audits had not been done. So, we got those audits done. Uh, we contacted Miami Sheriff's Office and
up updated all the radio communications, uh, call signs and everything else that needs to be done about every 6 months more or less. You get people that you change in shifts, they're working different shifts or people leave and got new officers in. That wasn't done for a
while. All the traffic radars were uh reconfigured and updated and uh as far as job performance since I have been here the operational
enforcement achievements have been arrests are up by 146.15%. In 2024, there was 21. 2025, 45 arrests. Traffic citations up 139.39%.
2024, 495 citations. 2025, 1,185 citations. Written warnings increased by 5.2%. 270 warnings in two in 2024, 283 warnings in 2025.
Criminal traffic summons rose by 28.33%. 202420 and 2025 67 summones. Felony and misdemeanor arrest spiked. F uh felony arrest rose from 1 to four in April alone. Misdemeanor arrest doubled from 8
to 16 in May. Calls for service decreased by 20.6%. That's just in the last three months. Despite this reduction overall enforcement and patrol productivity increased significantly, community
policing has increased by 38.55%. And those are watch orders and park and walks and you know talking to the uh the kids at the park and things like that. So in conclusion uh in the last three months, Biscane Park Police Department has resolved long-standing issues,
introduced impactful reforms, and increased its overall enforcement presence and community involvement. These milestones reflect the department's strong leadership and commitment to transparency, accountability, and safety. Gentlemen, I haven't not had my first
meeting with the department. I've done that on purpose because I don't know if I'm going to be made the chief or not. So, on purpose, I have not brought them into this uh this chambers to talk to them and tell
them what I expect of them. just my mere presence alone, you saw what the stats are like. So, having said that, uh it's been a pleasure being here. Uh I like the job here. I think this is a
this is a very well-kept secret, this uh village, and I think it's a wonderful place to work if we can just get to work. Well, sir, thanks very much for the presentation. um snapshot of the
department is certainly very helpful um to see the uh the directives and the objectives so far that you spearheaded. So I appreciate it. I thank you for for your help with our department. Um you know I'm going to open this up for some questions from the the from the commission for you. I don't want this to
turn too much into an interview process. I know there's going to be an opportunity for the commission and the the the community to to meet with you and the other um the other candidates. I think July 19th as the manager mentioned and of course you know anyone is free to reach out to you privately to talk
further. Uh but if there's you know a question that each commissioner would like to present at this time I'd like to go ahead and give them them that opportunity. I just have one question for you. You can answer it very quickly. How many years total have you served as the head of a department be it chief or otherwise? Uh combined
16 years. 16 years. Okay. When you were giving your resume I just kind of wanted to put that number together. two years as a senior executive assistant and then uh uh nine years as a deputy chief and then
four and a half years as a chief of police. And my boss is sitting right there, my ex- boss. Well, thanks very much. I appreciate the presentation and I'm going go ahead and ask the commission if they have a question they'd like to ask you before we move to the next candidate.
Captain A, I just want to say thank you for your presentation. Thank you for being here and thank you for stepping into this role in our Biscuit Park's time of need. You the change we've seen in the last I've seen the last three months really shows and I just want to say thank you. Thank you. Uh just one quick question. Um if given
this position, how long do you see yourself working here for us in this in the village? Well, hopefully doesn't what's happened here before doesn't happen and I'll be here for a long time. I'm I'm sorry. That's what I want to
hear. Just want to thank you for coming and I've seen how you have operated the last uh three or four months. We had that discussion. We talked about it and you have a very good reputation and uh um but you were chief once before. Why do
you want to be why do you want to come to Biscane Park and be our chief? Well, like I said earlier to to me it was a challenge. That's the same question my wife asked me. You want to do this again? And uh and yes, I had to think about it and I
think you all know why. So I I just I don't even want to go into it again because I want I want to for forgive and forget and let's let's get moving forward and uh yeah, there was a long thought process and
then I decided it's a challenge and I'm going to do it. Okay. Again, thank you for being here. Thank you very much. He's standing out there. I see him. Yeah, exactly. Got the the glass cup.
Thank you. Thank you, Captain. The floor is yours. Mr. Mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, village attorney, madame clerk, and Mr. Manager, residents, thank you so much for affording me this opportunity to come
here tonight. tell you a little bit about myself, perhaps answer questions, and tell you why I believe that I should be named the next chief of police for this great village. I was born in New York, raised on Long
Island. Uh, our dad was a military hero. He was a bronze star recipient in the Korean War. He raised us the right way. We learned compassion. We learned discipline. Um, I always wanted to be a police officer.
I went to Courtland State University in New York. I graduated with a degree in uh, criminology. I came to Florida and was offered a job with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, which began my 40-year journey in law enforcement. Can you hear me? Am I
coming across? Okay. Might want to try to speak into the mic a little bit better because those anyone that's on Zoom can only hear. Testing testing there. Yeah, that's perfect. Thank you. And I started my 40-year journey on the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. I was
blessed to uh not many people could say this, but I married my best friend and we had triplets, so I need a job more than anybody else. Truly. Um and uh as a Fort Lauderdale police officer, I
graduated through the ranks. I got five promotions before I went on to North Bay Village. and I was named the chief of police at North Bay Village. I was also the chief of police for the city of Opalaka and I was the twice elected sheriff of Broward County.
I'd like to go back to talking about promotions. I believe with 40 years of police experience, Commissioner, that it is imperative that a man or a woman who are going to ascend to the rank of police chief rise through the ranks.
At every different rank, you deal with different problems. You encounter different issues. As a sergeant, you're dealing with officers who come late to work, officers who don't show up to calls on time. As a mid-level executive,
you're dealing with signific significant policy violations. And as a major, assistant chief, chief, sheriff, you're dealing with the direction of the agency. You set the tone for what direction the agency goes.
Everybody's a boss watcher. Everybody. You lead by example. You encounter sensitive investigations that you can't believe you're dealing with. You're before the Dade County State Attorney's Office or the Broward County State Attorney's Office. You're hosting a meeting with the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement or the FBI or the Drug Enforcement Administration. It is so critically important that men and women who become chiefs of police rise through the ranks and experience every problem and and and success that
ranks have to offer. um the most important aspect of any policing agency. Ladies and gentlemen, we we we tell ourselves that we exist to do many things and we do. But in
reality, mayor, we exist for two reasons. One is to enhance the quality of life of the citizens we serve and the second is to reduce crime. That's why police departments are created.
You can only do these things through exemplary leadership. And in the FBI National Academy, and I'm I I have uh 3,000 hours of police training, and I am a graduate of the prestigious FBI National Academy. And up
at the academy, you learn as a leader when you're given directions, take a quick look behind you, if they're off to the right or they're off to the left, you're out for a walk. If you're the leader, they will follow you. They're not going to follow you down a criminal
road or or or a road they shouldn't. And shame on them if they were. But leaders need to set the tone and lead by example. Um, sheep's
an army of sheep. Listen to this. An army of sheep led by a lion will always defeat an army of lion led by a sheep. That's why we have to be the best
trained agency we could possibly be. I will bring stability. There hasn't been stability among the upper ranks at this agency for quite a while. I will bring stability. I will be here. I will give you a five-year commitment.
The um when I put in for this position and I was honored to know that I was going to go to the next step. Uh Commissioner Gonzalez, I was I had to come down here. I had to watch right around the city. So I rode around.
I drove. May some of you may have saw me out on my walks. I went to Burke Park and I spoke to residents and I said to residents, "What are you looking for from this police department?" And there were three common
denominators. One was visibility amongst police officers. Community has to have that. They have to know you care and they only will think you care if they see you. The the the second thing is people said that they wanted traffic enforcement.
And I'm a big believer in traffic enforcement because I know what traffic fatalities and and how they come about. But I also believe and I want you to remember me saying this if I'm blessed to get this position. I do believe in education before enforcement. We're not
going to go out and sandbag citizens of our own community and put up a a stop sign here or a stop sign there. In our uh magazines or our letters to the community, we'll let them know. We're going to do a saturation checkpoint over
here in the interest of total fairness. I'm going to ask ask officers, if you can give a warning, give a warning. I'm not a chief who's going to take back a ticket. Uh you know, that's corrupt. I don't take back tickets. Uh I don't tell
people, you know, I I'll I'll tell our officers what to do and give them the job. But if they make a decision to arrest or or unarrest, they'll have to deal with the consequences, but they're not going to have a police chief who's telling them, "Take back that ticket. You gave it to this person or that
person." Uh but we do want to educate and we do want to make sure the public is is aware of of what we're trying to encounter. The um the other aspect of law enforcement that
I think I bring to the table is I'm vetted. I'm battle tested. There's not a rank I haven't occupied or a special um unit that I haven't worked for. I
understand all aspects of the job. I'm not an expert or maybe one or two. But I think me knowing I'm not an expert is what makes me a successful leader. I know I'm not the smartest person in the room. I shouldn't be the smartest person in the room. Sometimes we we think
because we're at a higher rank, we're going to tell the detective how to investigate. No, we're going to tell the detective, you have an investigation to do. But we're not going to tell them how to investigate. We would do the jobs ourselves.
the um when I was also speaking you know to the citizens uh the citizens were saying that another thing that they they want to do is they want to know um they they would all say there's not a lot of crime
in in the in the village. There's not a lot of crime. We don't have to worry about crime. And you know what? They're right. There's not a lot of crime and we don't have to worry about crime until we do. until we do. I could promise you it it it I it's not something I'd like to say,
but Murphy will visit. It just happens. The bestlaid plans, and we are going to be prepared. I'm a former SWAT commander. I understand tactics. I'm a former community policing commander. I understand how to gain trust in
community and to partner with communities. Only through partnerships can we be successful. How do I know? I I come here today and and I I hope you could see honor and and truthfulness. I I'm a humble person, but
I come here saying uh and it's not arrogance that I know we'll be successful if I were given this job. How do I know? Because General Powell said that the best indicator to predict how a man or a woman will perform in the future is just to look at how they performed in the past. I've been a
police leader since I'm 29 years old and we've been abundantly successful. We've uh we've treated people with dignity and respect. We've put handcuffs on people. We use force only when
necessary. A lot of people think that the police officer decides when to use force. Captain, you know that's not true. the community, the person you're trying to arrest, they decide how much force you're going to use, if they committed a a an axe murder and I say to
them, "You're under arrest." And they put beh hands behind their back, it's over. They're arrested. But if they're going to resist, there are times where we have to, you know, use the lawful force and we're going to be trained and ready to do that. And I'd
like to segue into training, Mr. Mayor, if I may. Um, Abraham Lincoln said it, it was one of the most powerful quotes I took from the FBI National Academy. Abraham Lincoln said that if you told me I had
to cut down a tree and you were going to give me six hours, most of us, including me, you okay, let's get out there, roll up your sleeves, and let's start chopping. Not Abraham Lincoln, not our 16th president. He said, "If given six hours to cut down the tree, I'd spend
the first four hours sharpening the axe." And that's what we're going to do. We're going to be well trained and we're going to save money doing it because of my years in law enforcement and my connectivity, my contacts, if you will.
There's not a chief of police in Dade County that I haven't worked with before. I've been a member of the Dade County Chiefs of Police. I've been a member of the Broward County Chiefs of Police. Larger agencies have a responsibility of taking care of smaller agencies. I did
it when I was at BSO. I did it at Fort Lauderdale and it was done to us and for us when we were at Opalaka and North Bay. We're going to reach out to larger agencies and say we'd like to be part of your mandatory refresher.
Commissioner Huntington when he was speaking with the firefight the fire chief today talked about are you going to have more equipment and what have you. We we we will have a finite budget. I know the manager is expecting a chief of police to stay within the budget and I will I managed an $18 million budget
at North Bay and a $1 billion budget at the Broward Sheriff's Office. The principles of budgeting are the same. You spend on what you're allowed to spend on. If there's something that comes up, you meet with the manager. You tell your boss, here's what's happens.
He makes a decision and you move forward. Sometimes it's yes, sometimes it's no. Um, this village offers me the opportunity to build very real partnerships um with all stakeholders, with the
commission, with the manager, with the management's team, but most of all with the community. Our police department will be engaged with the community because I'll be engaged with the community. If you wake up on a Tuesday morning and you say, "Hey, you know, I'd like to talk to the chief about something." You'll have a better chance
of riding around the streets of of this great village and spotting me than going to my office. I'm administrative responsible. I'll take care of all the administrative tasks I need to, but I'll be out in the community. That's where you connect with people. Police police
departments can't be successful without the community, and communities can't be successful without the police department. We're going to use our uh the fact that we we uh were blessed. We're going to use that to help other people. Two short
accomplishments or two accomplishments I'll be very brief at that I wanted to talk to you about and I think it's important. I think it tells you a lot about a lot about who I am. One is the civil citation program. And I'll be brief. It's a program where you could give juveniles juveniles tickets
instead of arrest for misdemeanor. No guns, no violence, no knives. These are marijuana, graffiti, smaller crimes. Because of the work that I did up at the Broward Sheriff's Office, the state now uh elevated the uh amount of infractions
a young kid could have from one to three there. But for the grace of God, go I. So now we're giving kids other chances to get help with with mental health issues, alcohol, drugs, anger management. The the idea is we exist.
Let's keep kids out of the schoolhouse to jailhouse pipeline. Let's measure our success by the kids we keep out of jail, not the kids we put in jail. But there are times people have to go to jail, and we're equipped to do that. Um,
for those of you who've ever experienced uh a paramilitary organization, a fire department, a police department, the military, I could tell you the Navy Seals put it best. This is a quote from the Navy Seals and they say, "No
plan survives first contact." No plan survives first contact. We have to be ready to have contingencies. We have to be ready to move in different directions. And at the same time, we need to be transparent. If a community member thinks a police
officer made a mistake and did something wrong and after we investigated, I disagreed with the manager's approval, I'd be right here in front of God and country telling you our men and women did everything the right way. Conversely, if they made a mistake, I'll be up here. Responsibility on me. I'll
telling you how we how we made the mistake and what we're doing to make sure it never happens again. Um, the last thing I'll say about training is under pressure, a lot of people believe that under pressure you rise to the
occasion. Under pressure, Mr. Manager, you don't rise to the occasion. You sink to the level of your training. And that training level needs to be spot-on so you could deal with the issues at hand.
As a SWAT commander, there was a time in my life, this wasn't a good day, but there was a time in my life that I gave a direct order. I gave a direct order to a SWAT operator to take the life of a man so innocence could live. And without
blinking an eye, it was Roger that. Do you know how the relationship that you have to build that the kind of leader you need to be when you're telling an officer this person's life needs to be taken so innocence could live done that's the type of leadership
I'll provide I'll be accountable I'll be honest when I was a a sheriff of Broward County I was a member of a of a great I was a member of a lot of organizations but I was a member of one organization called the showroom societ society. And in
Hebrew, Shamra means to watch over. I've been watching over our communities for 40 years. I've never had an ethical issue, an issue of honor. My record is as clean as could be. And I I I will hit the ground
running. I'm battle tested. You give me the opportunity, you will be proud of the police department and proud pl proud of the work we do together. In closing, before I take any questions, if you'll allow, Mr. Mayor as commissioners, vice mayor, mayor, village attorney, Madame
Clerk, and Mr. Manager, thank you again for giving me the opportunity to uh come before you, speak to you, and let you know who I am. Thank you, sir. Thanks so much. Um, I think your your background is certainly impressive. Your achievements are the same, and they
speak for themselves. Um, thank you, sir. So, um I'm very appreciative of the service that you provided to our community at large here in Florida and and elsewhere. So, thank you very much for that. Uh and you know, it's it's it's um humbling to see that you have bringing are interested in bringing
that down to us here in Biscane Park. Yes, sir. So, the just very briefly, um we're not doing too much of a back and forth here this evening because we're there is going to be an opportunity from from what the manager said for for yourself and the other candidates to meet with the community. I believe that's next Saturday. Um, and then of course always
opportunities for you people to speak with you privately and and continue this conversation. But I I'd like to have the commission um present you with a question if they have one for you now. Yes, sir. So I will make mine very brief. Um, and this may sound very obvious, but you've obviously served in very large cities with very large budgets and you know we
know North Bay Village. They're much smaller too. Um, so you've kind of sounds like you've kind of run the gamut from large to small. So, how do you, if if you do at all, um, how do you adjust your approach again, if you adjust your approach from a place like Broward Sheriff's Office to a place like Biscane
Park? Well, all the agencies I've worked for, you don't really adjust your approach other than the Broward Sheriff's Office. The Broward Sheriff's Office is it's it's a city. There are 6,000 men and women I worked with. Uh, I after seven years, I can't even say I met each and
every one of them. Um, so that was uh, you know, that's not something you know you would want to happen. But in a small community uh, where you ride around uh, when I rode around from 5:00 to 7:00 or 8:00, I saw 40 people a night walking
dogs up and down the street. So, you have to, you know, you don't go when you want to fish. You don't go where you want. You go where the tour guide tells you. If I know that dog walking time amongst our community, a community that I'm charged with serving, people are
walking around from uh you know what, we'll get a canine or we'll get a beagle or something like that and I'll walk around and talk to people and find out information that way. So, a malleable um you know, I think the best leaders, the best listeners, and and I know that
problems solved, you and I, Mr. If we were in a think tank solving a a problem, it most of the time it's probably not going to be your solution or my solution. It's going to be a hybrid solution. And when you have uh you know uh uh like I said before
leaders mold consensus when you could bring people together and uh the principles of leadership are the same and I know and please don't take this as being arrogant sir. I know I could be abundantly successful serving the village. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Yes, sir.
So, I'll go ahead and ask the commission if they have a question for you. Again, thank you for coming. My only thing is next week. I'm looking forward to see how the residents respond to. You have a very good reputation from Brower County and all of that. So, I already know that and I definitely
would like to sit down and talk more with you about it, but I'm definitely looking forward to the community participation. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I know it wasn't a a question, but if I could just piggyback on what you said, um the uh up in up in Broward County and I know we're in Day County and um but up in Broward
County when I became sheriff, I took over a county where minority communities, Jewish communities, LGBT LBG uh TQ communities, African-American communities, the Caribbean-American communities had no relationship, no
relationship with the Broward County Sheriff. When I left, I think we received over our primary and general elections, we received about 2 million votes. And we received about 78% of the votes from the minority communities. So, I know how to reach out and touch people
that that don't maybe, you know, look like me or think like me. And and you know what? We don't need to go to the same schools and we don't need to go to the same churches and we don't need to put our kids in the same baseball. But what we do need to do is when on a mission, we need we need to be together
and and share the the the mission. So, um thank you for that. Not too shabby for a former New Yorker. Um so, only question that I have, well, this is I think this is an important question
for our community. Um one of the things that uh has transpired in our police department uh was accreditation. uh we started the process and for multiple reasons we didn't go through um to get accredited. So my question to you is do
you feel that that's an important thing to happen um and how would you go about uh that process? Well, I've been part of two accreditation processes. So it it it it's something I'm a proponent of accreditation. I I do it's a very costly
it's a very costly endeavor. So, you know, like anything else, you know, it's it comes down to dollars and cents. Uh if uh I I would hope to have that conversation with the manager and I would tell them, you know, what I thought of accreditation, who we would have to hire to be accredited and then
the manager would ultimately make a decision to move forward with. He'd say, "Scott, move forward with it. Uh give me a, you know, a status update or it's not something that the city or the village can financially handle at this particular point point." And then I just say, you know, yes, sir, move forward
with whatever direction is. But to answer your question, I I'm a proponent of of the the community respects a police department that is accredited. Thank you, Mr. Israel, for being here today and thank you for your presentation. Your reputation precedes
yourself. You come with a highly recommended. Uh we had a chance to speak on the phone earlier, so I I don't have a question for you. I just want to say thank you and thank you for your extensive career here in in Miami Dade and Broward County. You know, I really respect you for what you've done for us and thank you for putting your life on the line and for your service, sir.
Appreciate you. Well, thanks so much again for being here this evening. We very much appreciate your uh your presentation um and having an opportunity to interact with you. I'm sure we will interact uh a little bit more uh and certainly hopefully uh next Saturday, too. So, thank you so much uh and um have a good
evening. Great to see these faces and approachable. Come up to me on Saturday and ask the hard questions, the easy questions. I'll let the captain answer the hard questions and I'll take the easy ones. I think it is. I think so.
Pleasure to meet you. Thank you for Yeah. Next Saturday. Absolutely. Did I say this Saturday? Sorry. For anyone listening, I meant next Saturday. I've been I've been called on it. My apologies. Thought I said next Saturday. I was close.
Mr. Angel, good evening. Can you hear me? I can, sir. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you this evening? I'm doing awesome, thank you. Excellent. Well, uh, you are our la our our final candidate to to provide a brief presentation to the commission and the community that are here this
evening. So, I will go ahead and give you the floor and uh as soon as you finish, we'll we'll address the kind of a a brief uh Q&A session. Okay. Yes, sir. Um first of all, I want to thank everybody uh for the opportunity to be here. Um mayor, vice mayor, fellow
commission members in the community in general. Uh my name is Dale Engel. Um I've been a law enforcement uh professional for over 30 years. I began my career in a small town in New Hampshire just like the village um where
we had a chief six officers and we relied greatly on part-time officers to supplement the full-time officers. Um I moved to Florida in 1998. I um obtained a job with the town of Davyy as a police officer. I spent 22
years there rising through the ranks um holding every rank um ultimately retiring as a chief of police in September of 2020. I retired and uh got bored of being retired and went back to work and I currently work for the Semol tribe of
Florida and I'm a lieutenant with their police department currently working on uh trying to get the tribe accredited through Kalia. Um, I'm a family person. I have four
daughters that I raised um pretty much on my own, but uh that's kind of grounded me as an individual. Um, but talking about my law enforcement career um in Davy, I began as a patrol officer. I worked the different shifts
and uh like I said I was fortunate to rise through the ranks um being a supervisor over most of the units within the agency. Um obviously it's a larger agency than what uh the village is but I always go back to my roots of starting
my law enforcement career in New Hampshire. Um with Seol I've been able to get back down there and work with the boots on the ground and understand some of the difficulties that officers face today in um law enforcement. Um I know I I you had asked the fire
chief about mental health, mental wellness um in Davey. That was a big part of uh what we did. We incorporated it into our inservice training. Um and we took it very seriously. Um at Seminal, like I said, currently
I'm working on the accreditation of the agency. When I first got hired, I was a supervisor. I did some time on patrol and um ultimately uh they promoted me to a lieutenant and I oversaw their investigations unit and um just recently
have they put me into the role of uh rewriting their policies. That's about all I got. Great. Well, thank you very much um both for the service that you provided to our communities and thank you very much for being here this evening. So, um, let me just explain very quickly, uh, the way
that we've done this with the other two candidates, uh, and and we'll do the same here for you, um, is we're not doing too much of a a Q&A back and forth right now because there's going to be an opportunity for each of the candidates to meet with our community next Saturday. Um, and also, of course, you know, plenty of opportunity for everyone
to kind of reach out privately and and ask any further questions and discuss anything with you that they like. Um so just in in the spirit of kind of keeping this moving forward um what we're having each of the commissioners present you with um uh at least one question that they'd like to ask you this evening. So
um in that respect I'd just like to ask you Mr. angle. Um, can you just kind of I I think uh explain to us or describe for us a little bit about your your leadership approach and and your how you approach um leading a department, being the head of a department, how you work with, you know, subordinates and just
kind of your style. If you could kind of encapsulate that for us, I would appreciate it. No, I I appreciate the question. Um, I've read probably 50 books on leadership and management. Uh, I I would describe my leadership style as
situational. Every situation requires a different type of leader. There's times when you're going to be a dictator and you say, "You need to do it now. You need to do it this way because that's what the situation dictates. When I was in Davyy, I oversaw the the tactical team." And there's not a lot of time for
debate. You have to make a decision and you have to act on it. But then there's other times where you need input from the people that you're leading. Um I have found that by including the people that or the stakeholders in your decision in the decision process it's
easier to get their buy in getting consensus getting feedback on what uh is needed to be accomplished. Um and then getting their buy in obviously makes that mission a lot more easy. Um, and then there's times where it it's a
combination of um, telling people, you know, we need to get something done and then seeking their feedback. Right. Well, I very much appreciate that. Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to the commission. Thank you. Uh, good evening. I want to thank you
for coming and participating. Um, besides your years, what experience can you bring to this department? Say that one more time, sir. What experience besides, you know, your years in the department? What experience can you bring in this department that
you think we need? Well, when I came for the interview, I had the opportunity to meet with the four residents were there. and in listening to some of their concerns, I think that uh you're looking for someone that's going to lead the people that um is going to be a strong leader, but not
only just within the agency, but within the community itself. Um an agency like uh the village uh I don't think you're looking for a chief that's going to sit at a desk and uh not interact with the uh the community. I think it's important
as a chief of police, especially in a smaller agency, that you're out there talking with the people. And I'll give you an example, and I probably should have said this after the first question. Um, one of the things that we did in Davyy was, or one of the things I did personally was uh asking people what we
can do better. Um, I I think Davey was an incredible agency, but I think any place has the opportunity to improve. And I found that oftent times it's asking maybe the newest person, you know, what what is what's your friends working in a different agency? What are
they doing in these circumstances that we can help improve? And it may be that small tidbit of information that you implement that makes the process that much better. So I think at the village um I think you need a leader that's going to be there
for not uh not just the the officers out on the road but with the community. It's that interaction. It's that relationship and understanding what the community wants and needs. Um I routinely as the chief in Davyy would attend uh homeowners association meetings. um
every town event I would be there and always be available for the community because it's that feedback from them. What do they expect from their chief? And I pose that same question with the board uh during my interview because it's important to get it's not how
someone coming in from the outside and I remember this um every time we got a new chief and Davey, it's like oh well we did it this way here and we did it this way. Well, how does the village want it done? Because that's what's important. It's not I can bring some experience to
um implement some of the changes or ideas that these people have, but it's really what is the community, what is the council or commission, what are they looking for in a chief of police? And it's that relationship and feedback from them that's going to make it better. Okay. I know you have experience with
other departments, but um uh why do you want to come to Biscane Park and and what's your plan as far as time that you're going to give us as being as chief? Because we've had in the past where we don't have a chief that lasts a long time. So, what is your, you know, game plan on that?
I'll tell you what, sir. I have uh twins that are 14 years old, so I have to work for another five years. Um so, I plan on being in one place. Uh I I want to come to an agency where I have some solid input. Um like I said, I currently work for the seminal tribe in their police
department and I'm in a position where I don't have I'm in a position now where I may have a little bit more input with the authoring of some of the policies. But giving the direction um sharing the experiences and uh education that I have
in a small agency I think is going to be invaluable. Um, so I plan on being there for a while if you'll have me and uh help to to continue to grow the agency. And I made a statement to the board. Um,
my goal is to make the villages police department something that the residents are proud of. And I think that that's a goal that any chief should have coming in. Okay. Again, I I look forward to on July 19th when the residents and we can talk
a lot more then. Thank you again for coming. Thank you very much. And I'll be there. Well, u Commissioner Samary asked you the question about the the length of time that you for that you see um serving our community. Um but I I was just going to ask you're you're planning
on attending the meet and greet, I'm assuming. Yes, sir. I apologize, sir. I'm out of the state on a f pre-planned family vacation. I'd have been standing there tonight. Got it. No problem. All right. Great. So, yes, I'll um I'll meet you then. Thanks. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Engel, for your presentation and for being here virtually with us tonight. Uh, I don't have any questions. I look forward to meeting you on uh the 19th and and meeting you in person. I have some great questions for you then. I just want to say that you've demonstrated all I need to know with your ability to remain calm under pressure. As a father of twins and
a father of four, you can definitely hand handle it handle most things. So, thank you. Thank you very much, sir. Right, Mr. Engel. Thanks so much for being here and fielding some questions and providing some information. We're looking forward to speaking with you further and seeing you down here in the
village in a week and a half. I I'll see you on the 19th and I appreciate everybody's time and attention. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. So, Mr. Manager, before we move on to from 5B, was there any other um any other input we wanted to discuss before
we wrap this item? Um, no, Mr. Mayor. Okay. All right. So having concluded 5B, that wraps up our presentations. Let's go ahead and move on to public comment. So we will start with uh folks here in the log cabin. Uh just as a reminder, our public comment uh requires a name
and address and is limited to three minutes. And after those here in the log cabin, we'll move on to Zoom. So thanks very much. Hello, Judy Hamillberg, 1015 Northeast 116th Street. Um, this week we lost a
long-term resident of Biscane Park, Dennis Murphy. When I first moved here in 1996, uh, I lightly knew Dennis, but at that time he was renting the house that was adjacent to the public works property on
8th Court. When I got to know him better, I discovered that he not only was renting and then purchased that house, but that on our public works property, we were being run out of a beat up old trailer
and a um a a storage shipping container box and that there were no facilities for our employees of public works to use bathroom or wash their hands. And Mr.
Murphy made he had an auxiliary building on the back of his property that he allowed our people to for years and years and years have bathroom facilities and handwashing facilities on his property because there was none at
public works. Um he was a staple here in the park for any of those of you who got to know him. He was quite an interesting character with his stories. Um he was very very um
animated and always involved in things around here. He was always willing to try to patch a roof instead of forcing people to get new roofs and because he was roofing uh Murphy roofs. And I I am
believe you are going to be voting on whether to wave or not the fees for the rental of the log cabin for his family. And I hope you will do that. Um as with every death, there are large expenses
that go with it. His son just had a baby a few weeks ago and I think that sometimes we need to do things for residents to make life a little bit easier and I hope you will find it in your heart to wave the fee for the
rental of the log cabin for the memorial service for Dennis. Um I'm going to I got about 40 seconds left. Um as far as our police goes, I will be there on the 19th. I want you to remember for us
integrity is a critical thing with our police officers and with our chief of police because those without integrity have financially cost us dearly in this village. Thank you. Hello and Melanie Oliva, 590 Northeast
121st Street. I'll echo what Judy said. Actually, Dennis did our roof, and I'm really sorry to hear that. Um, I also wanted to say that there's at least one resident who's been trying to get in on the Zoom for six since six o'clock, and she's getting a message that says, uh,
that another meeting is going on. So, I don't know why. Um, and then I just wanted to talk about code enforcement. Um, we've gotten two letters. We've gotten a letter every month now or for two months that, uh, code enforcement will be going around our area. I don't
know if that's unusual, but our uh neighbor who my husband Mike spoke about last time, he did get a warning for his roof. Um I don't know if you guys remember what Mike said, but these are kind of elderly neighbors and uh they don't have a lot of money to keep up
their house. So, he was out on his roof cleaning this today with a pressure washer. I was watching nervously. So, I just want to make sure that um I don't know. I When we first moved here, it was not like this. it was not as heavy-handed with code code enforcement. I'd like to see us go back to that.
Thank you guys. Janie Anderson, 11905 Northeast 11th Place. First thing I want to do is thank Al and I believe also David Casserta for your roles in getting the 400,000 from the state for storm water improvements. I mean that is just so significant to
happen this year. That is phenomenal. Agenda item bear with me. 9G that is critical and I certainly urge this commission to approve that. that came from our last code enforcement, excuse me, code compliance board meeting
to abate what is a significant public safety, public nuisance issue that neighbors around that property have had to deal with. So, I again very much urge you to approve that. Um, regarding Veronica's report complaint, I'm not
sure exactly what we'll call it. It's unfortunate that she's got something on the agenda and she's not here to explain. Um, first of all, I'm wondering why she's singling out one meeting, but also she references resolution 2024-18
as requiring this lengthy list of places where meetings need to be noticed. Except what's always been explained to us is that resolutions do not carry the same legal standing as ordinances. They're not laws. So, I'm hoping
somebody will kind of explain that. And you know, it's just unfortunate she's not here, so I'm not really sure what her endgame is. Bob Anderson, 11905 Northeast 11th place. I just want to thank our uh the board for uh
going ahead and vetting the different uh candidates for the uh chief of police and our chair that did an excellent job. It's like hurting cats, but uh he kept us all
under control and I think uh we all learned a lot. And thank you Anyone else here in the log cabin going? Go ahead. Vicki 528 Northeast 121st
Street. I was not going to talk but I hear and I know Veronica is on vacation and I actually asked her you know uh if you don't need to log in because it's like six hours and she was not having
Wi-Fi don't do it. Okay. The only reason she put it in the agenda is because she was very worried about what the lawyer told her about that it was not informed to the rest of the community about the meeting where they're going to take
place to choose a manager. I knew it but be and actually I I was on vacation to that day and and I reach out but because my neighbor is on top but the rest of the people didn't and she starting to receive a lot of emails and text
messages of what happened why we were not notified. I just want to make sure that you get it. Okay. So thanks everyone here in the law cabin. We appreciate your time and your presence here this evening to provide us with comment. Um we'll go ahead and turn
it over to anyone on Zoom. If there's anyone on Zoom that would like to address the uh commission public comment, please raise your hand. Uh the clerk will unmute you. And the same rules uh apply for for our Zoom participants as they do here in the log cabin for public comment.
We have someone. We see you. We're the clerk's trying to uh ask you to unmute now. Hi there. It's Veronica Olivera. Uh I am at uh 108 Biscane. And while I'm not a resident of the
village any longer, I did um I do keep in touch. So, hi everybody. Uh it was a real pleasure uh hearing um the presentations today as well as the candidates for chief. So, congrats on a really good group and their
presentations. Um I read the agenda. I do keep up like I said and um I just I did want to go on on the record um that I think that Veronica's commissioner report is really important
and I hope that you all give it the attention that it deserves um and that you take it seriously and that there's some change affected regarding how business is conducted in in the village uh with regard to notices
and residents and you know just the process and accountability. So, it it seemed important. So, I wanted to say something tonight and uh hope everything goes smoothly for you. Commissioner, thanks for being with us. It's good to see you.
Good to see you, too. Okay. Um I don't think we have any more on Zoom. So, at this time, we will close public comment. Uh, and I will ask if the commission has uh any any reply that they'd like to offer to the um to public comment at this time.
Uh, I will say uh Judy, thank you for sharing that information about Dennis Murphy. That is sad to hear. I I knew he was not well, but I didn't know he had passed. So, uh, thank you. I do extend my condolences to his family, and that's uh, as a former customer of his as well, he became more like a friend to me, and
we he every time he passed, he stopped. We had conversations. It was a welcomed uh sight to see him in my front yard every day. So, thank you. Well, there's Okay, same point. Um I know that that was going to be the manager was going to bring that up um about the uh about the fee for the log
cabin, but um he was a special guy, uh Dennis Murphy, and he would often ri me about my roof constantly. So, it was uh it was nice to see him out front and it was always good to have conversations. So, I was very sad to hear that he was not well and and that he passed. So, um so we'll go ahead and we'll address that
with the with the manager I think during your report, Mr. Manager. Okay, great. All right. Well, other than that, thanks everyone for providing comment. Thanks for being here. Um we appreciate you being part of our process and we certainly like hearing from you. So, thank you. Uh so, we'll go ahead and we'll move on from uh our commissioner
reply to uh commissioner reports. Um, now this is uh kind of a point of order on this is this is Commissioner uh Amsler's uh part of her report. Um I don't know that it was really noticed as a report or more of a discussion item. Um but I know that this is her item. It
certainly warrants some discussion. Um I don't I would like her to be here for it. I don't want us to pass over it. I do want us to recognize that there's um it's it's certainly worth being discussed and it certainly brings up a salient issue. Um but uh I do I do I
would like her to be um part of that conversation with us. So having said that, is there any any discussion points um on her item tonight while she's not here uh maybe before we ask her to bring it back to us in August? No, like I said, I I agree 100%. I ra
it's a very important discussion. It's a very important discussion item and I would rather have the uh you know, the person that's bringing the discussion item here. So, I I don't think it's urgent enough that we have to do it tonight, but I definitely would like to have it as a discussion item. So, I
think in August would be good. Okay. Um, commissioners, uh, anything you'd like to say on this item? Maybe we ask her to to bring it back to us when she's with us. Yeah, I think that's the prudent thing to do. And I think on a bright on a broader term, we need to talk a little
bit more at some point about commissioner reports. Um because you know we we seem to be doing putting reports in here that should be in discussion items instead of you know reports you know which which was intended for us to talk about kind of
what we we've done um not not to air grievances or uh discuss things. If you if if we have a discussion item it should be in the discussion item so we can actually discuss it because this is not a time for us to be discussing anything uh other than you know our own things. So if
Commissioner Ham's not here, you know, she needs to discuss her item. Yeah, certainly. Yeah, I would agree that I think having her here would be vital. Uh I will say that being having prepared for this item to have this discussion, I reviewed multiple different municipalities around
and I truly feel like we've overlegisated ourselves and I would support uh a discussion to reddraft this resolution to get more in line with what other municipalities are doing. As one of the smallest municipalities in the county, having one of the largest requirements, it to me doesn't seem in
line with uh fiscal, you know, conservacity and is just not good policy. If we're not attaining it through this administration as well as the last, I think there needs to be a change and I think the change comes from this dis not from that building to my right. I think that makes sense. Um, and for
Commissioner Amsler, uh, when she inevitably watches the video, uh, you know, I do want to I do want you to know that, um, that we recognize the importance of the item, but we would very much appreciate her her presence here to discuss it with us so we can kind of move it forward as as we feel needed. And certainly to those that
brought it up, uh, this evening here in the log cabin and on Zoom, um, you know, we're not overlooking it. We just we we'd like her to have her opinions on it. So I think with that we'll um we'll move on from this point and and ask that it be brought back. Um so having said that are there any other commission
reports from any other commissioners that we'd like to provide at this time please? Mine is not more I I like your idea what you're talking about but a commission where does a commission be able to commissioner be able to comment on anything that he wants to comment. Isn't that done in report? I don't understand the question.
Well if a commissioner wants to comment on things he should be able to comment on it. You can comment at any time at any time. There's no there's no there's nobody tells you that you can't comment on anything at any given time. So, so the point of the commissioner report,
right, is for you to for us to bring uh kind of what we've done for the community or something that we're working on. It's not a time it's not a place in my humble opinion. I'm one of five uh for to bring up uh a a a list of
things that perhaps need further discussion because we're not going to discuss things during commissioner reports. We're going to discuss things when they're placed in discussion items. You understand what I'm saying? Yeah. But there should be an area where commissioners should be able to Yeah, that's some stuff. If you can put
that in if you can put that in I have no problem with just saying if you can put that in the agenda where it says commission comments, fine. Then I have no problem with that. But I I you know as a commissioner just my opinion here's a perfect example you know talk tonight is not a can we can we move on please but tonight is not is not a commissioner
report it's something that I want to comment on and and and so let me just basically say what it is it's not a report it's just if there's a spot on the agenda to where a commissioner can comment on things that he wants to come out then I have no problem and you can do whatever you want
for now and agree for something I was with what's going on in Texas. I was trying to figure out how the best way to express myself. So, my sister helped me to write this poem and I like to share it with the with the residents in memory of the loved and lost. As the
nation pauses, we gather in prayer for missing campers and loved ones everywhere. Our eyes are filled with tears and our hearts are breaking inside. Nevertheless, Texas, we're Texas strong. Families live are forever
altered by downpour night. In shadows of sorrow, we seek our light. Who is the light of the world? There's only one. And after the rain comes, s o n. Not the sun, but the son of the highest. The sun will shine
again. Our spirits are still burdened by grief for youth full of dreams. Now seeking much needed relief. Camp Mystic, a place of refuge, but now echoes with pain. Haunted by memories, a loss too
hard to explain. Yet from the flood, like Drew in the morning, we will rise again to reclaim the children's innocence and pain. United we stren in strength, we carry their name. We mourn with the break brokenhearted, we share
in their tears. Bound by our kindness, we conquer our fears. Support for Texas, our love and resources, we extend to families forever, shattered with heartbreak and disbelief. May we learn
on the holiest name our hearts stand still with the describable grief and pain. May the laughter and children forever respond. Echoed in our hearts where we true love is found. Camper miss was safe haven for many generations. Now
marked with despair plagued by loss. Many of us this loss is too great to bear. Or door the flood may have taken many lives. Like Jew in the morning still we rise. United in strength with hope in our eyes. We mourn with the
chatter. We share their unbearable pain. Still we rise. For we are brother and sister keepers. Through the joy and pain. Hold your head up. Texas. Texas was rise again. There was many stories that came out from this tragic in Texas.
Uh that I would like to share. Two sisters that were found that drowned were holding hands in Camp Mystic. There was over 750 children and adults combined. We lost 26. Five are still children are missing. One
counselor. There was a lot of counselors that saved a lot of campers. One story was so amazing that a group of counselors counselors had children on a twotory rooftop. With the water raising, they started praying and singing. The
water was almost at a second floor when all of a sudden it stopped rising. Scott Wuscan, an American hero who saved 165 lives in Texas floods. He was a member of the Coast Guard and he was his
first rescue he's done. There's been a lot more stories and I just hope that everybody keeps in your prayers and if it's in your heart to make a donation, you can make a donation to the right cause. Uh but just continue to, you know, Texas has helped us when we were
in trouble during our hurricanes and I just want us to keep an open mind. Thank you. Thanks, Vice Mayor. Uh, Commissioner Gonzalez, do you have anything for your report? Commissioner Huntington? Yes. I have one thing I want to share. Uh, I just want to thank, uh, the manager Al and our vendor for drain
cleaning, ANA drainage. They've done a great job over the last couple months, uh, completing 84 drains cleaned at this time. And, uh, I think between those and the ones we've identified that need to be cleaned when when the vendor gets back from his summer vacation, uh, we've have over a 100 drains identified in the village. I think it's the uh most
comprehensive list of locations of drains this village has had in the last decade. So, we really now know where they all are. Vast majority of them have been cleaned. I know the manager has intention to finish up that cleaning. So, it's uh if David Raymond, if you're listening, we're we're moving forward.
We're moving forward. Great. Thank you, Commissioner. Uh I really only had the one item, but Janie beat me to it on the appropriations request. We we uh received word last week and I know uh notice went out from the manager to the commission and to our departments I believe that um that the
governor signed the um uh signed the bill and and we were part of the appropriations request that was funded. So we received our just over $400,000 for our next phase of our drainage project. So that was very good news uh especially considering last year we didn't get it. So it was it was good to hear and and sorely needed for the
improvement of our drainage plan. So that was really all I had. Um, so I'm going to go ahead and move on to our reports. I know we have a couple of our our department people here this evening with us. Uh, our first report on our list at 8A is code compliance. I know
Dorene is with us. We're going to the manager first. She's saying uh, okay, Mr. Manager, is there anything on on the code compliance report? Oh, I'm sorry. We're going with your report first. Yeah, I think so. Sorry about that. Oh, that's all right. Go ahead, Mr. Manager. So, um, um, good evening, Mr. Mayor.
village commissioners. Thank you very much. Um, yeah, the all the department reports are attached to the agenda, but just uh a couple of brief items that I wanted to talk about. Um, one that was already mentioned this evening was uh uh
Dennis Mur Murphy who um was a longtime resident of the village and and somebody that uh I would call a friend u passed away. I had sent out the notice that he was in hospice and then we got the news that he had passed. Uh he um he knew my
wife and I for a very long time. He had also replaced two uh roofs on my house. And every time he drove by the h my house, every when I was out there working on the yard or be be out, you know, pulling in the driveway, he would stop and talk. And uh always had always
had the opportunity to ask me about my my kids, how their boys are, what are they doing, and he was just outstanding gentleman and a longtime member of the of the community, a business owner. and he actually had put on this roof um 10
years ago had replaced this roof that he was very very proud proud about. And I had called him in when we when I had uh gotten the information that we had gotten a grant and we were looking to replace this roof and he was giving me some advice on how how to uh replace it.
So, uh, his family is is planning a celebration of life, uh, on July 19th here at the log cabin from 2 2 to 4 p.m. And everybody is invited and, uh, as uh, um, I'm sure the community would like to
come out and and and uh, and give their well wishes to the family at that time. So once again, it's July 19th from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Um, we had talked about state appropriations. Our state lobbyist, uh, David Casserta has shared some great news with us last
week. uh we were successful in requesting one of our capital improvement projects which was a storm water uh project had made it to the Senate and then the House and when it was state um place on the state budget and the much for $415,000 that just
getting on the um state budget is not an easy task. Uh the governor then reviewed the budget and made some $800 million worth of budget cuts for the final budget and a list was published of all the projects that were cut. In the years past, they uh published a list of the
the projects that were approved. This year they published a list of the projects that were were cut. Um um so we were fortunate uh not to make that list of of projects that were cut. We I I reviewed it like
three or four times to make sure our name wasn't on it. So, we were we were not we were not cut unlike some of our neighboring um um cities. They were on that list. So, I'd like to thank the our state lobbyist David and our our mayor
who traveled to Tallahassee on his own dime and on his own time and walked the halls of Tallahassee. And I I know you learned a lot, Mayor and the lobbying process. And also uh one of the people they met up there while they were up
there is Senator Anna Maria Rodriguez who sponsored our appropriations on the Senate side and she is a longtime friend. She's not in our district. She's not a senator from our district and she uh but she still uh sponsored our
appropriations. So, a good uh I had text her when I found out and I just would like to publicly thank her for for doing this and I know it's been a a while since we've got any appropriations money for the village. So, this was a really
big win for us. Um, Commissioner Huntington mentioned our stormware drains ANA drainage had our approved vendor had uh just completed a list. I think it was like over 80 drains that the commissioner had uh had uh indicated
that we had gone ahead and um and cleaned and the the vendors out of town this week, but we had we had identified some others that uh that were missed on the on the on the list and I we with the help of Commissioner Huntington who's in his daily walks or evening walks, he had
identified the additional uh drains that we missed and they're mostly mostly on the north end of the village and we're going to be cleaning those in the next couple um weeks and then we'll get out an LTC that uh has a final report on
that whole um whole process, that whole project. Um uh this evening we had presentations from our three finalist candidates for the position of police chief. The chair of our selection committee, Mr. uh uh
Howard Goldman who's no longer in the room was uh had uh I just like to thank him all his hard work and also Bob Anderson Joe Fchett uh Trish Walker and the former president of Dade Police uh Chiefs Association
um and our police chief of Coral Gables. Those were the two uh police officers that were on the uh on the committee that uh provided some great insight and into the process. The next step in the process is we're going to have a
community meeting, a meet and greet at the parks and recreation facility from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. We'll be publicizing that. It's going to be on Saturday, July 19th. uh give an opportunity for the com the community to come and meet the three candidates, have
a one-on-one meeting with them during that hour and have some coffee and donuts in a more relaxed atmosphere. Uh and then uh I'll be uh getting input from the the residents, the this board, and then I'll make be making the the
selection. Uh the budget process, as you're aware, we're in the budget processes underway. the finance director and I have been meeting with departments to formulate the draft budget. Uh if any of the village commission members want to meet with a particular department to go over the draft budget prior to to
schedule workshops in August, uh please let me know. The uh finance director and I and myself will make ourselves available. Uh the next scheduled date for the first budget meeting is July se 17th at 6 pm. Uh that me meeting will be
for the millillage and approving the resolution for the waste tax. Uh fi finally there's two items that uh we uh I need consensus on. The first is the celebration of life event on July 19th to wave the $1,400
uh application fee for the Murphy family. Mr. Oh, Mayor, I respectfully request a waiver of that fee if we have consensus. Just thank you, Mr. Manager, for your report. I know you're in the middle of it still. Um Brad, just reminder, we get
we have just consensus on this. We don't need a resolution to wave that fee. Correct. Okay. Um I put it to commission then. Um I certainly have no problem waving the fee. So, I'd be looking for consensus from the commission at this time. I have no problem. I have no problem waving it. No problem at all. You have your consensus to wave the fee,
Mr. Manager. Thank you, Commissioner. And and then the final one is to seek consensus to begin the July 17th meeting at an hour earlier at 5:00 p.m. to consider just one item at that time and that would be my employment agreement. Um my attorney has a trial that starts
in August and uh the 17th would just be more convenient for her 10. And so Mr. Mayor, I respectfully request that we have just meet an hour early at 5:00 pm on July 17th for that one item. Just if I may. Yeah, please.
My calendar is that a meeting that was the the date by which or the date on which we were setting the uh the millillage is that 6 pm is the regular scheduled time meeting. Yeah. You're saying your contract is on No, I'm asking that we meet one hour
earlier uh just to to consider this. Still have the scheduled meeting at 6 p.m. for the budget, but at just meet one hour earlier to consider that my my employment agreement. We able to do that, Brad?
You can you can hold the meeting. Um I I can if mayor and mission if you want I I can give you a status where we are. Um so um Mr. Childress's council had provided we I had some conversations
with her. Um we talked over some parameters and what the process was going to look like. Um she provided me yesterday with a um a draft agreement. Right. Um I I reviewed that this morning
and um did an underline and strike through of it and provided it back to her with um not only underlined strikethroughs but obviously explanations as to why I might have struck through or proposed modifications. I sent that back to her.
I I'm trying to remember the day the day has been pretty hectic, but I think sometime early afternoon I sent that back to her. So clearly she has probably has not had a time to review it at this point. Okay. Um we can put that on. I just don't know if we're going to be ready.
Well then why don't we do this? Why don't we tenatively set it for 5:00 so if we're ready we can discuss it. But if we need additional time based on the the back and forth and the red lines then we can we can convene it reconvene uh whenever we're prepared to do so. But if we put it on now then it's
that's fine. Okay. Fine. I just that was I I misunderstood providing a status asking for so I'm just providing a status okay I appreciate that so I I'm Mr. manager, I I certainly would have no problem um starting that meeting at 5:00 and tenatively setting the item for
discussion uh of course on the condition that we're ready to do so. Um and you know, we can certainly discuss it at 5:00 at that time if we are ready. July or August? Just July. We have a meeting at
I think that's next that's next Thursday. We have a special a special meeting at 6 special meeting at six o'clock on July 17 right now to set the millillage. And what we're discussing is I know it should be but it's not. I had that in August. I had that meeting. So
that's why I was confused. All right. So I will make sure I update my calendar. I'll get that from the clerk and make sure I have it. Okay. Great. Uh do we have a consensus from the commission to to to do what's been proposed to tenatively set that item for discussion at 5:00 pm before we
begin the millage discussion? Yeah, I'm fine with that. Anyone else? Should shouldn't the public have a be able to hear discussion on this one? Is it it'll be a publicly noticed
meeting? Yeah. Is that a yes or a no? Okay. Commissioner Gonzalez. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's a yes. As long as the public Yeah. Give enough notice. Well, it would have to be publicly noticed and
the public would have to be present and be heard. It's not something we could do. It will be publicly noticed and the public will have an opportunity to be there. I'll do is I'll just set a five:00 special meeting, right, with that one item because the other one has already been Yeah, it would have to be a separate
special meeting. The other one has already been noticed. Perfect. So, you have to have a consensus. either the mayor on it on his own or four members of the commission have to approve another session. Okay. Commission Gonzalez.
Okay. Contends. All right. Mr. Manager, thank you. Uh Mr. Attorney, thank you. And Madam Clerk, thank you. Uh and thank you, commissioners. So, um is there anything else? Uh Mr. um Mr. Manager on your report? Thank you very much. Okay, great. I just have a quick question for the
manager. So um you know it seems like bad news flies through the air here in this village like uh you know the speed of bullets. So my question to you is how are we getting all all these winds that great things that are happening you know
the appropriations uh storm drains. How are we communicating that to to to the village? Because I I honestly other than next door that he posted um I'm not seeing anything coming out of the village. So, how are we communicating this to the village or are we at all?
Right. So, commissioner, I immediately when I find out, I send you an email. Yeah. And I let all of you know so that you can tell your constituents the way that you would like to to send out the message. Um, and then I will do
it at the as I just did during my monthly report. I'll announce it during my monthly report. So um so the village from the village though the village is next I don't I don't have Facebook. I'm not on Twitter. We have we have a next village has a
nextoor account. Correct. No we don't. No we don't we do not have a nextoor account. We have the app right. We have the app. Yes gov app. communications through the app. The gov app. You know if you want me to start doing that I'll be happy to do
that. But the gov app was to notify the special meetings, get the notice notice out. So I didn't want I didn't want to use that for you know for me personally I think it would be a fantastic thing you know to to communicate you know we have a grant for
the roof here. We had an e somebody asking about, you know, the shingles flying off and smacking them. You know, just we're not we're not communicating the wins as fast as we communicate any losses. Right. I brought this up a couple times
before. I think that we have a communication issue in this village, but I think we need to uh come to a happy medium with our administration of what we can and cannot do. And I think that we're rapidly getting to the point where maybe a communications workshop is needed to sit down with the the
commission, administration, the public and identify how we communicate. Uh let it be known and and hold our administration accountable, but also hold ourselves accountable to the residents. When you say, "Hey, I didn't get an email." Well, you know, just saying speaking facitiously, we we
decided through the workshop, but we're not doing that anymore. You say, "No, we we've we don't have uh email list. We can't use it anymore. for using the app. So now the app I think that there's been because there's been so much changeover in administrations, one administrator has an app, another
administrator before had an email list, one before had something different that there's a lot of confusion in this community as to how they're going to receive that information. And I think before you start fixing the wheel, we need to decide what that wheel is. What's what's our go-to? What what are we going to hold? I think we need to
make it simple. I think too many uh social medias is a bad idea. there's too much information. I think it should be one device, whatever we decide that is. And I think it that realistically we should sit down, have a workshop, discuss it with our with our um administration, discuss it with the residents, and come to a happy medium
going forward. City man, yeah, I'm all in for that. My question, city manager, is about our website. How far are we on getting? Because this is a lot of stuff that Commissioner Gonzalez is bringing up that can be put on our
website. How long are we getting to fix this website? It's not your administration was administration before. On the administration before, I remember the last time I was on the commission, we approved the $12,000 to build the website and we still haven't done it. It's still not done fixed correctly. So, when is that going to be
updated? So, I I this past week I had met with the um vendor that manages the website for El Patel and I was briefing the mayor on this when we had met and um she has asked I'm I'm going to give her
some ideas on what changes we would like to uh be made on the website and then she's going to give me a uh a estimate on what the cost would be for that. Well, the commission, the past commission approved already 12 thou, I think,
if I'm wrong, I think it was $12,000 to build this website. So, have we spent that money yet? I mean, it's Yeah, it was passed. Well, I think um the messaging here, and I don't want to spend any more time on this right now, I think that messaging
communication is remains a problem. Um it's just something that we've something that we've tried to solve a number of different ways uh a number of times and nothing's quite stuck yet. So I think a workshop is a good idea on how we can kind of you know similar to the the
workshop that we had for kind of fiscal uh fiscal directives and and how we can all align with all of our you know all of our departments to fix the issue. So I do think that's a good idea. Um, I would certainly certainly like to have Commissioner Amsler's input on this too
because I know that's something that's important to her. Um, but I think a workshop is a great idea. Website, social medias, email lists. I mean, there's there's too many. I mean, I streamline things something is is important and we need it. So, I agree with you on that point. I think a workshop's a great idea. So, I think um I think we should probably try to set
that when we have all five of us here. Okay. Um All right. Thank you, Mr. Manager, for your report. So, if there's no other questions for the manager on his report at this time, I'd like to move on to um our code department. Uh our code director is here and just
not going to don't need you to present unless you have anything specific you'd like to present to us or if there are any specific questions. So, are there any questions for the co-director on her report at this time? No. No. Hearing none. Okay. Thank you very much, Dorine. Uh our finance report is
X. I know Paul's not with us. Are there any questions on the finance report uh we'd like to bring up at this time from the commission? No. Hearing none. Oh, no. Okay. Um our police department report is next. Uh acting chief zero is here with us. Uh is there anything you'd like to present as part of your report
to the commission this evening, sir? Not at this time. Are there any questions for the acting chief on his report? Hearing none. Okay. Thank you very much for being here with us. Uh uh public works is next. Um are there any questions on the public works report? No. Seeing none. Are there any other
questions? I'm just going to do this all at once. Any other questions on any other other reports from the commission at this time? Hearing none. Okay, great. All right. So, let's go ahead and move on to our consent agenda, which is section nine. Do I have it? You know what? Before I'm sorry, mayor, if I may just Yeah, please. So, um, and I guess I
should have pulled this item, but I don't know that it's necessary. On 9H, if you're going to approve 9H as part of the consent agenda, we just need you to approve it as amended. The essential amendment is um the project was
identified as the village hall hardening project in parenthesis log cabin restoration. Okay. Project name has been changed with the um grantor. Okay. And it's changed now to the Biscane Park
historical log cabin hardening project. So, both the title of the resolution, the body of the resolution, and the and the um any of the exhibits, the agreement um where it references village
hall hardening project, we we would amend that or ask that you if approved, we amend that to the Biscane Park historical lot cabin hardening project. Understood. I will make those amendments before it's it's executed. All right. Thank you, Brad. So, and before we do that too, I I you know, I
neglected to do this during additions, deletions, withdrawals, so my apologies. Uh 9J. Um I didn't see the minutes attached to 9 uh I'm sorry. Yeah, 9J. I had uploading issues this agenda. Okay. Um and I thought they were attached. I
apologize. Can we just bring that one back next week? We can. We can. Right. So, I apologize for the last minute amendment on it, but we're that the the consent agenda will be amended as as identified by the attorney on the record as to 9H and to remove 9J because the backup isn't with it. So, having
said those those two items, uh do I have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as amended? I make a motion to approve this the consent agenda as amended. Do we have a second? Second. Second. Okay. All in favor? I I
I Okay, as amended, passed. Thank you all very much. All right, so having concluded section nine, our consent agenda, that brings us down to section 13, our discussion of new business, the only remaining item on there, which is the discussion of the parking project, which I believe uh Commissioner
Huntington, this is Did I read that incorrectly? My No, my my apologies. That's fine. I'll take it. Me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me and the manager have had many discussions on this on what last time we discussed this project we really we left it up in the
air. Uh we didn't provide uh great direction to the manager as to what we want to see done with it. We we did have conduct a study of parking to uh that was a lot of the questions we had with our uh vendor as to how many parking spaces we would have, how many parking spaces do we need. uh the estimate of 75
that what we need was thrown out there. And I I don't know if you guys re remembering the study that Issa did. The study did not show that. The study to me showed that we have a peak hour between 5 and six o'clock when there's pickup time for our school uh after school program, soccer, and things like that. I've had discussions with Issa about
about changing our schedule a little bit if it's possible to change our schedule to uh accommodate for that peak, but uh that there's been information as far as how many hour cars were parking per hour and it's vastly under the 51 spaces or
52 spaces that are that are in the project. So, uh as this project the manager really didn't have a lot of direction from the commission as where he wants to go. I urged him to put this on as a discussion item. Did not see my name on there. Sorry. Apologies. I think that probably came from our meeting. So, my apologies.
But I fully support it because I think we need to give the manager direction as he as to how he wants it's permit ready. It's ready to go and we either need to put it on the shelf like this game park always does or put a shovel in the ground, which is what I would really like to see happen. So, I'd open up the discussion as to what the commission
wants to do, how we want to provide direction to our manager, and floor is yours. I appreciate that. I I apologize for unfairly putting you on on the spot to do that, but you did a a great job. So, Mr. manager, was there anything uh that you wanted to introduce on this item? So, my weekly meetings with uh Commissioner Gonzalez, he also brought
this up and he want wanted to move this project on along and was asking where it is and and what the dollar amount for the project would be. And so, I told him we would bring forward bring the the uh the consultant back and put it on the
agenda for discussion item. So, yeah. So, my radar was entirely off. I should have been here, started there and probably should have started with art. So, so thanks everyone. Um, so then I guess the recommendation um I kind of agree with your assessment um Ryan that
this has been approved this has been improved in the works for a very long time and that's tends to happen uh with Biscane Park is these things get approved uh we kind of get tied up with you know design and and money and and how things are going to be fun and then they just kind of sit. Um so I'm I'm glad that you all brought this back up.
Uh I do remember um Mr. Manager that one of the the very large kind of elephant in the room items with this was the increased cost. Right. It was what some of them were upwards of three times what we originally were quoted something like that. So um Mr. Mayor if I could um our our
consultant is in the room and he's been waiting to talk. So um Mr. Matthew Plec who's with the uh Chisum architecture firm and he's also the one that is going to be overseeing the roof that you just approved that item to
replace our roof. So it was uh good that we had both these items on the agenda tonight. So good diving. Yeah. Thank you so much for being here this evening u Mr. Pock and I I'll turn it over to you. No problem. My name is Matt Plock, president of Chisum Architects, 782 Lun
Road. Um, I wanted to thank thank you all for approving the to move forward with the law cabin and I am here to uh answer any of your questions with regards to the parking project. We did have a presentation I think earlier this year where we presented that um did have
a conversation with Mr. Childris um uh earlier this week and also today and um talking about the budget. We did go back through our paperwork and we're looking at the budget. Um I'm not sure what the original what numbers were quoted to you
all. Um we did reach out to our consultants um our civil engine our civil engineers to see if they could give us a ballpark figure. But in going back through the going back through the file, we saw that initially when the project uh was in the conceptual stage,
the parking the the parking for the 50 51 parking spaces, the just the parking alone, that number was coming in around $230,000 to do the all four sides of the parking area. I would say that that probably
that was three years ago, over three years ago. So there's been probably an acceler, you know, a cost increase over those years that I we're assuming probably somewhere between 8 or 9% is probably what's happened just because of where the market is. So that's probably
pushing that number up into the $300 to $350 range without and that's really without carrying any contingency on that. Um we also did and went in we went back and we looked at some of the other features that were added to this or included in the scope of work and we had
the Vita course which was a sevenstation Vita course those are running you know anywhere between 75 and $100,000 depending on ultimately this the equipment you select the number of stations I think we had seven stations uh in this design and then you're
talking you know adding we had water fountains um which we need to plum and and install and we had uh picnic uh picnic tables, garbage cans, benches, bunch of other things that go
in there. So, you know, you're you know, the pricing just working on this and we can always get back and get back with Mr. children. So, a little bit more time to drill down on it. But I think we were looking at our numbers coming in somewhere anywhere between 500 and and
and $650,000 if you were to do all of those things. And I don't not sure how you all want how you all want to proceed forward on doing the work. Certainly, some of those items could be phased in. the vit track nec doesn't necessarily
have to be done the same time the parking's done or or obviously some of the uh some of the amenities and the park park amenities could be um brought in at you know under a different budget or at a different time or we could select something else a little bit you
know something different but I think that's where the numbers were I don't know if that if that syncs up with where you guys were on your numbers I was throwing out a multiplier something that struck my I do remember when this came back to us several months ago go that there was an increase in cost basically because it had been quoted it had been quoted out so long
ago that just Right. Right. Um so sorry I didn't want to interrupt. Was No, that that's good. That's why I'm here. I I think there was when Mr. Childress and I spoke there was a maybe a talk about phasing the plan. And I didn't know if the phasing was something just a concern with the neighbors on how
the work would be done or really a budget issue on how to maybe fund the project and to get, you know, ultimately get to where you want to get to. Well, I think that that latter point is always going to be an issue that we need to consider when we're talking about these things. So, I I appreciate that.
Um, let me just ask you this, and I'm going to do it kind of unfairly summarily. Um the the proposal that we have before us obviously is the the original proposal the the proposal that you just outlined that was in that's that's what's on the drawings right now. Yeah. Correct. In the ballpark of 20
it it was 230 just for the parking. That was what was uh in the original. They they they um it that was done by another uh another design firm. I don't take any question to the numbers that they did there, but they they provided a number
for doing the parking using the parallel parking idea scheme, protecting the trees, using asphalt paving, and doing the trees. Now, what wasn't included in that 230 number was the vitource, the the water fountains, the benches, and
then obviously the cost increases that have occurred since June of 2022. So that's the other thing that sort of has to be kind of budgeted in at this point. So that let's just put the number at 230 for sake of conversation. 230 was just for the parking just for parking. That was for like 50
50 well 50 parking spaces of which 51 but I think six of them were existing but were going to be repaved and restriped and and new signs and all that. And the increase in the cost that you you've just communicated to us that was that's just for the parking plan. That's not for the other items. Well, no, no. I
I we went ahead and looked at the other at the other items. Um I can't tell you where the picnic benches are being built. So, like if they're built in China, like I could be off by 80%. I don't know. Who who knows? We'll know in a in a month. Um but, you know,
th those are obviously items that there's a different level of the type of picnic bench we want to use and and so we there's a budget that I think we could probably work with there. That's not and it's not a big number. you're, you know, maybe 15, $20,000 in picnic benches or
something like that. But, you know, the big numbers are really the VITA course is really where the big is, you know, the second biggest number next to the to the parking spaces. So, then to return to my unfair summarily phrased question to you, in order to move forward with this
project, hypothetically speaking, you would need to provide us with an updated quote and design and everything. No, I I think the way it's set up, I mean, and and I think the 50 parking spaces is the number and I and I agree uh when we went
back and looked at the data as well that there are peaks and obviously if you can time the peaks a little bit better, then you can bring that, you know, you can bring your peak number down. So, I think and and there were advantages to the parallel parking solution in that it
protected all I think all of the trees were able to be protected. Um, I think it's safer in the sense of cars aren't backing out onto the rightway. They're they're you know, they're backing in and, you know, so you're you can see people behind you, you can see cars coming. So, it's a safer uh solution.
Um, so in in in that sense, I think you'd want to move forward with and I and I think that was probably the method that you know the selected one with the asphalt paving and how it was chosen was
probably the the most uh affordable option of the of them all. um which I think you know makes sense but obviously the number has ex you know has increased since since you know 2022 certainly so and the reason that I asked
that question of course is is obviously because I think it's important that the commission sees kind of the level of service that we're talking about the levels the levels of service that we would be provided by providing just the parking by adding the fountains by adding the benches by adding whatever
all the the plus+ plus. So, um, you know, I I certainly would feel more comfortable seeing something like that uh in more of a formal proposal. Well, I think I think we could if I and Mr. Childress and I talked about it earlier today is that we what we think
the best step forward is to get into permitting and get through the through the um permit process and have a dry run set of drawings that are ready for a contractor to to pull a permit for. And then at that point I would put it out to bid. Um, and that will have a big
influence on how how it gets priced as well because obviously the depending on and I I'll be honest, we've we've been working with with with with you all for about a year, year and a half, but this would be really be our first project that we'd be doing, you know, together
from start to finish. Um, obviously whatever requirements you all have in your bidding, you know, that's going to have an impact on the level and and type of contractor that's going to bid this project. So, obviously there are, you know, smaller u, you know, smaller
paving companies that are going to probably give a better price than larger paving companies, but there may be insurance requirements or something that may prohibit that. So, how it gets bid will have an impact on the price. But what what I wanted to say is that the
documents and the bid document can be you know put in in a in a format so that okay give us a price for the paving and the parking, give us a price for for the vita course, give us a price for the equipment and then that way you kind of if you and you could do it as an
additive alternate where you would you know get A and then add B and then maybe add C or do it as a deduct where you have the whole thing and you take out A, B or C, however you know, and that'd be something we'd probably have to just have some more discussions on to see how we'd want to do that. Okay. So, that information obviously
would then come back to us because that's obviously going to exceed the the the manager spending authority. So, that's where I was trying to get. So, I appreciate that. I've been monopolizing your time. Uh, so I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to the commission to see if they have any questions for you. Thanks so much. Um Al, seeing as we've been talking
about this for three years, um do we have money for this in the or is this something that we're going to have to talk about for the the next budget? We we certainly don't have money in in this year's budget for this. And yeah, so we've been talking about it for three
years, but we haven't budgeted anything in the I I I guess we just figured we're just going to keep Yeah. So the opera money is is going to the stormwater project. Yeah, you and you just you uh this evening you just approved some expenditures for the opera money,
but the remainder um uh amount will be going for the storm water project. Then we're also going to have to that $415 uh,000 that we getting from the state appropriations. We're going to match that for another 415 or maybe even
500 to to complete that that project, that one storm water project. So that that's um that's where their money but is budgeted this year commission. Okay. So this is something that we're going to have to talk about for the the upcoming year. Yes. It's not something that we we can
break ground on next month or you know. So I'll be back. I just don't want you to come back in 26 and 27 and then 28. I just prefer you just come back one more time and then we can move forward because this is this is
just ridiculous. Uh so my question has to do with phasing. If we uh obviously I think a $500,000 project the village could probably never do that all in one swoop. And with the Miami Country Day uh agreement pending, I don't think they would even appreciate us putting
parking. They would have to go over to redo the field. So, um, if we move forward with this project and decide to do it in phases, say the north side, southside, east, west, break it up that way, four phases, uh, would something in these documents have to be changed or
that would be done at RFP process? Um, it's a good question. I think you again you could you could set up the um you could set up the the drawing so that those you know you would take that those parking spaces and then just segregate
those into you know four if it's four quadrants or two quadrants or however you would want to do that. I you know I it I understand the you know the budgetary impact that you know you all are facing on that. So, I mean, the the
more parking you could get done at one time clearly is the best, you know, part moving forward. I think everything else is more is more um has a little bit more leeway in how it gets addressed, but the parking is such some one of those things is every time you go
back, it just is not going to get any less expensive than it is, you know, today. And that's I and I know you all understand that. So, so the more you could get done at one time probably would be the best way to do it. But it could be broken up in a way that at least you could bite off what you could afford.
So now my question is the commission is uh you know as he just said this is never going to get cheaper. It's just going to get more expensive. We've already been talking about this for a number of years. We have a need in our park right now. Our residents are not parking uh in a legal way that if they
did that in their house they could park. They're parking on dirt. If you parked on dirt in your house, Dorene would be out there to give you a violation. So, she should be out there giving violations to the village right now because we're providing dirt parking. I would like to see that change. I would like to see us actually move forward with intent to complete this project uh
to direct the manager to find the money in subsequent uh fiscal years, next fiscal year, the year after, phase it through a couple fiscals. Uh look, explore CIT grant grant funding, things of that nature. Uh I would also just speak bluntly would just right now take
Vitoor off the list because I think that it's under would be underutilized. is I don't see it as a need for the village. I see parking. I see benches, trash cans, water. It's really hot outside. Water for canines. But, uh, Vitour, I would right now scratch $100,000 off the
list. I would move forward with a parking in a phased approach and our benches and, uh, water fountains to follow. But, uh, I leave it to the commission what we want to give the manager intent for. Even if we put an RFP out today with as many days as left in the fiscal uh fiscal, we're not
breaking ground this fiscal. It's going to be next fiscal as it is. This is a perfect time to int uh give intent to the manager because he's drafting his budget right now to at least start working towards one phase next year, phase after that, and keep on going. If we never start, we're never going to finish.
I I agree with that. question I want to ask you the and we had this discussion and I didn't know anything about this this ARPA money that that's going back you said can we use that next year for this can't okay I I just Okay I I agree with you I
like that we we need to get this thing started so let's try to find money in the next budget to do this uh and phase you know the parkins I think is the most important thing we need to do so yeah right I agree with you I mean I think that we prior prioritize this um
obviously not this fiscal so unfortunately the conversation doesn't go a whole lot further tonight for you even though you're here with us and we appreciate that I guess my question would be the I you know and I I'm not really that good with government but the next fiscal year the
next the next fiscal year is it starts in October November one yeah well I mean I just just from a timing perspective though anything if there is you know if you have money in the budget to have it uh permit ready in that it you know by the time the next fiscal
year rolls around and you Mr. Childress and I were talking about is that once because once you get through all those environmental issues and you know what it is when you get the price you there aren't any surprises that what tends to happen a lot of times is you get a you'll get a price and then you'll go to permit and then there'll be some comments that you weren't you know you
didn't realize were going to come up or some environmental issues that you didn't realize were there and and you end up you know with a with a cost that you didn't anticipate and once it's permit ready it's ready. Yeah, that that was the question I was going to ask you. Is it possible that we can do all the permitting and all the environmental
stuff now? Because our permitting, you know, takes time and if we can get all the, as you say, get all this permitting approved if he comes up with plans. Hoping I'm explaining that right. I think if we can get the permitting process completely done,
I think first thing we got to figure out is what's the cost of that too because there's there's a cost associated with that. Well, what's the cost? Do we know what the cost is? Well, so I think that this we're past a threshold. I think you know this a cart before the horse sort of argument. I think it goes back to what Ryan mentioned was that we provide direction
to the manager of let's figure out how we can phase this in an appropriate way that we can start tackling it and be ready. First of all, understanding the budget constraints that we have for the remainder of this fiscal. So if that means permitting is not going to work this year, then it's not going to work this year. But you know, you'll you'll if we're providing you the direction to do that, then you'll be able to let us
know. uh and then further providing the direction to say let's try to position this to get started as soon as we can in the in the new fiscal um whether that be all the parking or whether that be two corners of the parking I mean whichever whichever way makes the most sense. So I
don't know if that's a clear enough direction to you Al to say if that the commission is providing you with the the direction and the authority to kind of plan to work on this project as a priority to start as soon as we are able in the new fiscal. Does that make sense?
Mr. Mayor, if if you recall, we had a strategic planning session. We had two days of strategic planning and in and during those two days we talked about the the major projects that you wanted to see funded and those were this roof.
Uh you talked about paving this street, you know, uh we're working on that. You talked about the public works building, putting a new roof on that public works building. Um, you talked about the stormwater projects which we've got
appropriations for. Uh, we're working on those. I think there uh I don't think we mentioned the Ed Burke parking project. I don't think that was a priority for you at that time when we were when we met. um if that if that's a priority
now, we we'll go back and look at it and see what you know how how we can work it into the budget for the upcoming year. But those are those are the projects I'm working on right now to after after I had gotten direction at strategic planning. Those are the projects we're
working on and and trying to fund those also. But this this project here, this is another 200,000. It's a matching grant. So, it's going to be another $200,000 that the city has to put out for that project. For what? For the roof. It's a $200,000 for the roof. It's $178,000 grant that we have to
match. Yes. So, we're not going to build a whole brand new log cabin. No, but we're putting ADA. Oh, okay. So, that's what ADA doing some other other things. I was going to mention that been on the list for a long time. Yeah. I was going to mention that the ADA thing here for them. So, that's
included in that. How about this then? What about asking having the commission ask the manager to provide us with a better understanding of the cost of So look at it this way maybe and don't correct me if I'm wrong. Uh commission um we've identified the
priorities that you've just repeated to us but if we ask you to to put together an understanding or an idea or an understanding of what it would cost to to do this. So let's just say hypothetically speaking we can do two corners of the parking for I don't know
100,000 and if that's a lower cost and it's more attainable versus one of these other projects then maybe we bump that up in priority but I don't know that we know that until we know what the cost is. So maybe we can is the first p first piece right so understanding the cost and maybe being able from that metric
rearrange where our priorities lie because of the more attainable costs of one over the other if that makes sense. I may just be talking in circles and please let me know if I am, but maybe with a better understanding of what this would cost to get it started, maybe that would better position us to rearrange our priorities if we determine that to
be pragmatic. Would that make sense? I don't want to overload the the the number of projects that you're working on. I know you've already told us that you're working on several projects as it is. Um, but does does a does asking you to do those things to give us a better
understanding of what it would cost to get this started. Um, is that too much of a lift? If you're saying this evening that this is now our priority for us, you know, I don't know that we're saying it is. I think we're saying we don't know that it I don't know that it is. Uh, and but I
don't know that we can make that determination. I don't I think we're saying that it's our number one priority. I think we're saying it's added to the list. If it's added to the bottom of the list you just identified, I think that's okay. But as long as we're moving with intent to the finish line, whether that's, you know,
takes two fiscals, three fiscals, four, you know, I I think that this commission would be fine with that as long as we're moving forward. I think we have intent to move forward. But I think we're we're not telling you to go break ground tomorrow. We're telling you to uh move with intent to a to a finish line. uh if
that I think we'll be understanding with our fiscal constraints if that takes two fiscals or three that we're okay with that as long as we are moving forward. I I I think starting with the permitting will make us actually go forward and you know if we if we do try to get a price
on with the permitting get all of that out of the way that we're going to say oh we spent money on a permitting so now we're going to have to go forward with it actually push us because I agree with you this has been dragging on too long based sorry finish I think we if you could find the income how much it will cost to do the
permitting and see if we can fit that into the budget at least get that out of the way so do we have an understanding maybe ballpark of what it would cost to to pull permits for this sort of project so we could go to bid. You know, it's a good uh again another good question. It's it's going to depend on the final scope because I think if
you're sticking with just the paving um it I I would say if we carry 2 or 3% of whatever that construction cost is estimated at is probably a good fee. Um you know, when you start getting into the water fountains and water and water
meters and all that, then things start to get a little weird. But if we keep it to just uh regular civil site work, um I don't think the fees are are too much. And and I and again the fees really only you have some upfront upfront fees to pay for the review, but
you're not really pulling the fee itself until you actually are ready to put a shovel in the ground and you have a general contractor ready to uh obtain that permit. So you could go through the dry run permit and I would say that that number is going to be relatively small
and I could get back to Mr. Childress on you know do a couple phone calls in the morning tell you what that would be but if it's going to be two to 3% it's going to be out it's going to be above the the manager spending authority anyway so it's going to have to come back to us as it is. Yeah but that's two or 3% at time of
time of when you're ready to go to construction and that two or 3% would probably already be built into your final construction cost. it would be a a soft cost added in to the final cost at when it comes forward to you guys to approve it. The upfront fees I think are going to be significantly less than
that. Then maybe I'm just trying to get us a starting point. No, no, I'm with you. I know it's all mine. It's all important. So maybe then the starting point here is to ask ask you to speak with the manager and come to an understanding of what it would this is this is step one, right? The permit. So
come to an understanding of what it's going to cost us uh with these upfront fees on the permits to even go forward to do a phased approach because if we don't know what that costs or if we find out I know you're saying it's not 2 to 3% but I'm just saying hypothetically speaking if we find out it's going to
cost us $20,000 then maybe we pump the brakes until next fiscal. I I do want to move it forward with some intent and I agree with you on that point. Um but I think we need to have an understanding of what that cost is going to be. Um because I don't want us to just blindly say just go ahead and do it and then all of a sudden we got to wait because you
know it's we got to wait until I don't know what November or maybe it's outside of our you know fiscal abilities next fiscal as it is entirely. So there's a lot of unknowns here. Um and I think we we in order to give some better direction I think we need to have a dollar in front of us. So would we be is
that something commission would be in agreeing agreement on to ask these two gentlemen to get together and talk about what it would cost to do the permits to even get us to bid? Yes. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, definitely. I want us to get going here. Sound good?
It just and that's without the vital course. So we Right of course is just Yeah, I think that's probably I I certainly agree with that point. That's more of a an add-on towards the the back end of this. Um, so I think the parking is certainly the most important. I agree with that point. So maybe that would be the direction that we would provide here
to to kind of get us started and move this thing forward in some intentional way. Does that sound good? Yeah, I I think from what I'm hearing there is consensus that we the vital course is not a
a major part of the project and that's something yet uh yeah, Commissioner Huntington also has has asked about uh you know replacing um uh many of our our
recreational equipment at the parks at the parks and it's outdated. So we we we're looking at grants and we could see what other grants are out there for for if there's any grants for a parking project for parks and recreation or anything like that or this is I know a conversation for a
later month but does does this type of project it's not technically recreation for through FRAP but it's around a recreation just as uh just clarity FURDAP has not happening this year they was not funded in the state budget so there will be no FDRAP grant for this year
right good point. Okay, then never mind. Forget I said anything. But uh as we're talking about Mr. Manager, would this qualify under CIT funds? Would be able to use utilize CIT funds for this? No, I don't think so. That I don't I don't think it would. It's you you know, I'll double check, but I I
don't think it will be, but I I'll double check. Then returning to your point of finding some potential alternative paths to funding uh while looking at the permitting costs to get us started so we can make some progress because I agree with the commission on that that progress is important on this
item. It's been outstanding for far too long. Um so if we're clear on the direction on that point, I think that wraps up that discussion item. We very much appreciate you being here to answer questions. Thank you. Thank you. We're looking forward to uh hearing more from you on the project. Thank you very much. Uh so if there's nothing further, that was the uh our
only discussion item for this evening. Um if there's nothing else, we'll request the items that we've rolled to be placed on next month's agenda. We'll be getting together again uh on the 17th beginning at 5:00 pm. Uh and having said that, I'll ask for a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second it. All
in favor? I I thanks everyone. Have a good evening.