All right, Full Moon. How are we looking? We're good. Thumbs up from Full Moon. The regular council meeting for Tuesday, May 26, 2026 is called to order at 7 o'clock p.m. We're going to have a moment of silent meditation followed by a pledge
of allegiance. United States of America. Clerk Jacob's not here today. Um, I'll do the roll call. Roll call. Member Winters, >> present. >> Member Lightoot Ward.
Member or Council Person? >> Present. >> Vice Mayor Martin >> present. >> And Mayor Omar is here. We also have for the record uh the village manager David Roseman is here. Attorney Geller's on his way. He says he's running late and
clerk will not be here with us tonight. We also have um police officers in the back and we have some of the staff in the back. All right. So, let's move down. So, we're going to move to the approval of the agenda. Uh do I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> So moved.
>> We have a motion. We have a second. >> Second. All in favor say I. >> I. Post say nay. Hearing none. All right. We're going to go down to good and welfare. All right. Before we get into good and welfare, um we are going to work the clock today. Um, let me just say this very very quickly. Uh,
it's been a good run people. It's been a good run. Um, for a very very long time. I've allowed a lot of lenience [laughter] when it came to good and welfare. Um, a lot of overtime, a lot of multiple
occasions of individual coming up, you know, after one time. But we are going to bring it back to the rules and regulations. I've noticed that even individuals who um want to speak for very long periods of time even they after certain
council meetings will contact me and be like mayor can we please stick to the rules like they're it's just getting too wow and so and so we're going to do that from now on um I guess I'll have to be the bad guy for that but these are rules that have always existed as I said I understood the you know the importance
and always understood the passion of the idols that come before us Right. And so I always want to allow everybody to express themselves especially for items of very very important um or very very importance. Uh but that being said, uh I'm just going to read the statement of
the curum. That's always been there just so we have that down. And we're definitely sticking to three minutes, one time up per resident. Okay. Per speaker. All right. Statement of the quorum. It's always at the top of your agenda. Um it's been there for decades.
Uh any person making racial or slanderous remarks or becomes bolsterous while addressing the village council, staff, etc. shall be barred from the audience by the presiding officer. No profanity, shouting, heckling, verbal outbursts or disruptive behavior in
support of or opposition to a speaker or his or her remarks is permitted. No signs or play card or plaque cards shall be allowed in the village hall. A person exiting the village hall shall do so quietly. All right. And that's the statement the has always been there.
That being said, this is a time um good and welfare. Anybody can speak about anything that they want to speak about. Uh three minutes. Uh one time up and let's stick to the statement of decorum. Good and welfare. Just come up say your first and last name and the address. Your address and the floor is yours.
Oh, good evening. My name is Denise White and I'm at 173 Northwest 88th Street. Um, been there since I was 12. I calculated that. That's like 42 years. That's a long time. Um, I've heard
people speak and say they've been here, you know, since 19 um, from 2019 and stuff like that and 2008 and whatever. And I've been here for a long time. Um,
one thing I pride myself on is I used to say I'm from Miami, but right now I'm always choosing Elportal because I'm an Elportalian, right? Um, I don't know if you guys know, um, what's his name? Willie Lynch. But there's a thing with slaves and
Willie Lynch, what he did was he went in and he gave this um, recipe on how to make sure that slaves don't fight back and that they leave you alone. And one of those ways is to divide. Because if you divide people in so many
directions, then actually you conquer them. So, um, while I've been on this ride called El Pertow recently, I would like to say that, um, this recent rough patch right here is full of getting in a chat,
getting thrown out of chat, um, saying the wrong things and upsetting my neighbors till that they don't even speak to me anymore. Uh, Miss Edna speaks about people being rude. Um, she was my girl up until the other day and I guess I must have said something she
didn't like. So, she don't talk to me no more. When she comes to meetings, she doesn't talk speak to me anywhere. And this one doesn't speak to me. I was a part of a chat and they kicked me out. I don't even know what I did. But I knew I do know one thing that this mouth is mine and I'm going to speak and say what
I want. Either I'm going to be on the council or I'm going to be in the audience, but I'm always going to be Denise. She's never ever anybody else but Denise White. Always. and forever. And if she says something that offends you, please let her know. She will apologize. I know I'm a crazy neighbor
and I probably annoy my neighbors. I don't know. You got to ask George. He in the back. I probably annoy the hell out of my neighbors on a regular basis. I'm not going to say no. But they're my neighbors. And I've been here for how many years? 42 years. That's how long I've been here. And whether I speak to
them or not, I consider them Elcortalians. And when somebody comes in and spreads all of this stuff that causes us to look at one another and not speak to one another, even if I don't like you, I'm going to say hi cuz my mom taught me manners.
So all I'm saying is let's not let some person who's new come into the mix and cause us to be who we are not. Unless that's who you really are and you were, you know, and he said, "I can't curse." An a-hole before and now you just
showing your true colors. That's fine. As long as you are an Elportalian right here, right now, I got to love you. And I'm going to do my best not to offend you. But please understand that. Again, one more time, this is my mouth. And I
will say whatever comes to my little heart. Now, this is an issue on the agenda always. They could not put it on today, but it's still here. We still got Little Farm and we still have this place over here and we still don't know what's going to happen to it. But we should do
it as a united front. So whatever your neighbor is mad about, I'm when I see Ed, I'm going to be like, I'm sorry. She gonna be for what? I don't know, but I'm going to be sorry because I would rather be an Elportalian than be anything else right now.
Somebody come with the right price. That might not be a L port, but right now I'm an Elportalian. You know what I'm saying? So that's all I'm saying is let's be nice to one another. I don't care if they don't agree with us. Somebody asked me, "Well, why you keep saying y'all? Y'all because I don't want to fight. I don't come to
city hall to fight. I come to city hall so that people can be heard." That's all I come to see you. People can be heard. That's what I want. I don't want to fight with my neighbors. I want to hug and have little tree parties over here, you know, and and and and do little
things that Elportalians should be doing to embrace the fact that we are multicultural, beautiful place to be right now, right? We don't know what's going to happen in the future, but right now we are beautiful. Amen. >> Thank you very much.
Good evening. Noel Pace, 206 Northwest 91st Street. Also own uh multiple businesses at 8661 Northeast Second Street. Uh been in El Portal uh since 2008. Been a resident since 2008. Um first I want to mention uh it's still
National Military Appreciation Month. Uh and that is uh something that was enacted by Congress starting in 1999. Uh it's to recognize, you know, the over 1 point now over two million people in
uniform along with their families uh and um and associated veterans. I I want to say we have like 18 million veterans here in the United States now. Uh and their family members. Obviously, there's gold star families. Uh the most uh you know, honored of our of uh our group. um
where their family member made the ultimate sacrifice here uh uh defending our freedom. Uh just to let you know, last week um Miami Day County set up a memorial now right at the uh county uh uh government office building. Um if you
didn't know, over 3,000 Miami Day County residents have died in uniform in defense of the United States. And so now each one of their names is displayed at the county um uh uh government office building on a memorial a very nice
memorial. Um and then obviously we have memorial day uh which was yesterday. Um I can tell you that North Miami Beach I I represent uh on behalf of the county. I'm part of the military affairs board district three uh as a member of that
board. And so, North Miami Beach did a nice proclamation for uh Military Appreciation Month. Um, yesterday I attended the Miami Beach uh uh Memorial Day ceremony uh remembrance ceremony. It was great and I know that um we've just
had a lot of things going on. I appreciate everybody's support of that. Um, that being said, and I appreciate uh Denise White's comments, um, you know, I've mentioned to uh the proprietors of the potential school, you know, it's
it's it's okay to disagree. I think, you know, our goal is to not be disagreeable. Um, I do advocate uh and want to be clear that, you know, myself along with a number of other residents are not anti-school. We just happen to
be an anti-school at the old Raider church location. Just like there were two other schools proposed for that area. If you look on the community plan, that future use for that property, no matter what happened, was for a park.
Um, I think it's important to look at Biscane Park. Its historical uh park focus. Miami Shores has another a couple parks right on Northeast Second, which is also known as Main Street in the community plan. And then here now we have a cleared area um which you know
was intended future use as a park. I think it would be great to have that green space in that area which I mean the the the old Raider church property is not that large actually. Now that the building's gone it seems even smaller than it was. Um that would be a great park to have on our main street as a
focus sort of as a communal area uh that public events and everything else can be used for the benefit of the entire community. I know that a school has been proposed there. I do know that the people are associated with that also have other property in the area. I've advocated for them to locate their
school at the Little River Farm uh property that they have. Uh I've recommended to them on the record number of times that um that you know if they put their school there and proposed it there that the majority of the community would probably support its construction
there. Uh but but I think that you know especially in my particular case I would like to see the old Raider church become a park. I think that's the best long-term use of that. Obviously there's other commercial development on Northeast Second Avenue, but that would be nicely balanced uh with that park
there again as sort of a center of gravity for in the middle of the town. So hopefully you guys consider doing that. Okay. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Good evening, Honor Zerb 460 Northeast 89th Street and um I'm also on the council. Uh I just want to remind the
residents of Elportal that as we discuss things like a uh you know a what we're discussing tonight uh with the resolution um as we discuss what we want to see happen with large parcels like Little Farm or the
sanctuary. um as we discuss uh what we're going to do with the short-term rental uh ordinance that is yet to be uh ratified because of uh legal technicalities. Uh there is a through line through all
of these which is how much home rule is Elportal going to be allowed by Tallahassee. So, just a reminder, in the county you live in, built on land that was taken by the governor under
imminent domain, there is a building that exists that fits the modern current international legal definition of a modern concentration camp. There are more than 1,000 souls missing from that
building, unaccounted for. >> [clears throat] >> Home rule is under extreme threat throughout the state of Florida, but it is exacerbated right here in Miami date county where every billionaire on earth has decided I don't
have to pay 15 layers of bribes to everyone in Dubai any longer. I can just walk into the county commission offices. That's it. >> Thank you very much. Good evening, Kalikto Navajo 335
Northeast 87th Street. Um, I just uh wanted to speak on uh you know what we had been discussing in good and welfare. I just want to make somebody had communicated to me that um that a lot of us who did not uh want the school to be
go over here at the old radar church that they felt that the Adam Newman and their group felt unwelcome or they weren't welcomed here in El Porto. I I don't think any of us I think we all love the idea. We all love the the the
the unique concept. We just felt that where it was placed was not the appropriate place to go. They had a beautiful site right on the river. They own all that land. I know that it's part of a a greater development uh with other
investors, but they could have swapped properties and they could have done some sort of deal where they could get five acres over there, develop it, do whatever they wanted to do. Now that apparently they have uh they don't feel
welcome and they're not going to do anything. Um perhaps the good idea would be turn that into a beautiful park. I mean it has beautiful trees there already and it is our downtown and there we could do other commercial buildings.
And by the way they you know uh Toll Real Estate LLC has been buying up all of Northeast 2nd Avenue. So, they own the old Mary Prao's accounting office, which is directly across the street, plus the they they just bought um the
other two properties that they wanted to turn into parking lots that I they're renting out now, and they're looking to buy other properties. I know this because I'm a realtor and I believe that they're going through their rabbi uh to
um try to get people to sell um their properties and um yeah, they've been buying. So, I mean, I think that, you know, they can they they can move their assets around. They could still build a school over here in the little farm uh
on the river. I think it would be very nice and um make a nice park, beautiful with native plants, trees, and by the way, that used to be um uh on that property, I believe historically from uh Bob Carr's book. Uh
there was an old Countai processing plant there where where they would make arrowroot back in 1859. So, I'm sure that if you dig under there, there's probably uh parts from the old factory there. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much.
>> Good evening. Joanie Gomes, 269 Northwest 86 Street. Um I'd like to quickly just recap. So the plans for the soulful school were submitted to the village uh around Q4 of 2025 and residents have come month after month to these council in planning and zoning
meetings to voice their concerns, ask hard questions and bring facts to council about how we are very much opposed to these proposals at this specific location for various reasons. The list is long so I'm not going to repeat them again. Um, we did see that the same soulful proposal was
resubmitted on May 11th of this year around 5:00 p.m. Uh, however, these are the same plans to us. So, no adjustments have been made to accommodate the village or its residents. Um, council has not conducted their own traffic study or push back one bit to our
knowledge. Um, it's quite obvious that um, some of you have some personal interests um, and that might be swaying your decision which is unfortunate. Um, so please just remember that you work for us. We've put you in this position. Um, and there will be an election November. Um, that said, you have the
opportunity to make things right with us and it's just a simple twostep process. One, uh, schedule a June planning and zoning meeting to vote no on the SOF plans that were resubmitted on May 11th. And number two, we urge that you join the lawsuit that challenges the SP180
uh, with attorney Jamie Cole. It's a flat fee of $10,000 and this also includes the attorney's fees and costs. Over 25 other Florida municipalities are part of this ongoing lawsuit and we should be part of this. Um I know that some residents are afraid
of the live local and being part of this lawsuit will eliminate this fear. Thank you. Hello, Kathy Emory. I own property at 169 Northeast 87 Street. And what I have to say about the proposal for the school
is the traffic will be horrendous no matter what you do. And the area between Northeast 2nd Avenue, I've been here time and time again and nothing has happened to improve it. The area between Northeast 2nd Avenue and Miami Avenue on
87th Street is like living on a freeway. The speed of the traffic is between 40 and 60 miles an hour every day I'm there. And I've seen it I beg the police to monitor it. I've seen them there twice. They routinely monitor Northeast
Second Avenue and give plenty of tickets. I hear them day out day in day out. But between Northeast 2nd and Miami Avenue, there is no traffic monitoring. There are no sidewalks. There is uneven grass. And you see
people trying to wheel their baby carriages through dirt and potholes and muck along the side of the road. The other day I tried to help a lady with her baby carriage and there's a big lip on 87 Street the road and her cat ran
out in the street and I was trying to rescue a cat from an oncoming car that was coming about 50 miles an hour and I fell in the street myself. So they need to put either sidewalks or level the street. They tore the street
up a couple years ago. They cut all the driveways off and now there's big potholes along there. It's dangerous. Somebody's going to get killed if not badly hurt there and you need to do something. And I don't know how many
times we have to come and ask for this. So I hope one of you will take the initiative to have something done. And the school is only going to invite huge amounts of traffic. If you look at uh the Presbyterian church where they have
just uh daycare and uh kindergarten, the traffic is horrible there alone and they don't have about a tenth of the amount of students that you're planning. So, you need to consider the people who have lived here for many years and own
property and do something about it. Thanks. >> Thank you. Hi everyone. My name is Kelly Gomes. Uh 269 Northwest 86th Street. Um I came to the last few meetings. Um I intend to
keep coming to each of these meetings to just continue to um voice my opinion uh about this proposed school that wants to be uh put there. Um, I know last meeting, uh, Mr. Winters was like, "Why are we bringing this up when it's not on
the agenda?" Um, I keep coming and I hope more people keep coming because this is the only time where you guys get to hear from us. And I don't want it to seem like I've warmed up to the idea and that it's okay whenever it does come time for you guys to vote. Um, so again,
I'm here to voice my opinion about I don't think this school makes sense for us to have a school that doesn't contribute taxes to our uh to our village. Um, I don't think we can sustain the traffic and safely operate in our community um with the traffic
that would come. Um, if you lined up right here on 87th Street um 100 cars tomorrow morning at 8 a.m., this would be mayhem. So, you know, to the extent of what we discussed last
meeting with SP 182 um and the importance of understanding the traffic um impact uh that this would have in our community. I think it's it's the responsibility is on I would say us as a community, but really on you guys as a
council uh to commission um your own traffic study, not something that a developer goes and does and pays pays somebody to give their point of view on what they're trying to accomplish. Um but instead that you guys take the lead with the time that we do have until um
SB82 gets into um um whatever into effect. um so that you guys have the facts and the ability to make the right decision for the community. Um and it's not an arbitrary decision at that point. Uh because again, you can't park a 100
cars on the street like the police department would freak out. Everybody would freak out. So, um I think it's on you guys to take that step and say, "Hey, let's come together as a council, get our own traffic study, and understand what that would mean to us as a as a community."
So, uh, that's it. Uh, thank you again for all your hard work. I appreciate what you guys do for us. And, um, that's it for today. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Hi everybody. Um, I want to request four minutes as
this is tied to the agenda. Is will that be okay? I have a whole thing written out. >> The the part that's tied to the agenda, the historic preservation part, >> we're going to go over that part. >> Can Can that part Wait till we get to that? >> You want me to wait?
>> Well, well, the the part about the historic preservation part, >> is is that tied into the first part you're going to be talking about or is it all tied together? So that's what I'm talking about is the preservation board. >> Oh, if you can wait till we get to that agenda item. >> Can I Can I do it before you guys vote though?
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. 100%. Yes. Good evening. Uh I'm George Alvarez. I live at 165 Northwest 88th Street. Um I appreciate the uh instruction and
guidelines from uh the deis. Sometimes civility is the way we get through things and sometimes we need uh conventional reminders of it. So, and to that end, um I'm going to say a couple
things about the proposed school at uh the former uh Raider Methodist Church. Um and [clears throat] a couple other things. Um, I know that when all said and done, whether or not uh that property uh
becomes some version of a school or some version of whatever, we're all going to live together. We're all going to get over this. We are all, each and every one of us residents of El Prtell and a couple friends of El.
And there will be another day. We will figure things out. especially interpersonally among friends and neighbors. That does not however abdicate our responsibility to take a serious look at
any of this. [clears throat] I think when a developer proposes a development and a body politic listens to it, it is an
act of faith. A very dynamic act of faith because we have to take it on faith that they are doing things the right way and they have to take it on faith that we
are listening to them the right way. So faith is a very dynamic concept in and of itself. I happen to know that this body, this council has over years and decades fine-pointed our
code. Some people may embrace the fact that we have formbased code. Some people may not uh love it as much and point out some of the um super sillious aspects thereof.
But I think when it all comes down to it, we are putting faith in a developer to become partners with us and a developer would likely be doing the same. So if that developer seeks
aims that require special exceptions, administrative exceptions, that requires changes to our comprehensive plan, then that's where we lose a little bit of faith. That's no longer seeking partnership.
that is seeking to do what they want to do irrespective of the faith that we so desperately want to have. To mirror [clears throat] what uh one of my other neighbors said, I'm I'm not against a school. I'm not against any
school being there. I am against a school of that size, with those dimensionalities, with that impact, with those question marks and those objectively countervening
points about their design capacity and lots of question marks about infrastructure. So, as my time is nearly up and civility shall run the day, I will bow out at this point and [clears throat] I might
be able to continue something else in in in one of the agenda points that I wanted to talk about that either that or I'll have enough time to try to figure out a way logically to make it work. So it pains me to to to hear that we are in
some way burdensome when we come here and repeat what we say you know over and over again. Um I get it but this is truly truly important. The stakes are exceptionally high and between things
that we know, dimensionality, size, contra contraventions of our ordinances, things that we have learned recently. Oh, that there's been a new um May May 11th it has been resubmitted. So, I'm
eager to see if any changes have been made to that proposal. Let's see how that gets written in the transcript. And then there's the things that we don't know. As have been alluded to, we have multiple properties being purchased
by the same owner across the street two and three blocks away. So, we have to protect ourselves. So to that end and until I see something terribly different, I am urging you guys
to oppose anything that's remotely like the proposal that was uh originally dated in whatever date it was originally dated, October or December or or or whenever. And to that end, I'm going to echo I'm
glad somebody else said this. The lawsuit that has been filed, [clears throat] um I don't I I don't quite know whether they are separate lawsuits. I believe in some cases they are and in some cases they are joint
lawsuits. um towns close to us like uh Miami Shores, Weston in order to get some common sense on live local because live local may not have the same impact maybe actually desperately needed
in Miami here. If if the owner of 10 let's say live local buildings on the east side of Eltel and any number of other taxexempt buildings throughout Elprell should have
that much tax exemption. Then think about the disproportionality with which our infrastructure our roads our very old water manes our nonexisting sewer system. Think about the impacts
that that will have on us and the lack of tax base that we will get. Even if these buildings are only 50% or 40%. We will be receiving short shrift and we will be accepting much greater tax
burden and a burden in the form of our way of life. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for indulging me. Thank you, council, for your work. Appreciate it. Daniel Roas, 60 Northeast 86 Street. Uh, so, uh, not to be a broken record, I
also agree with my neighbors, I think a project of that scope and size is not what's best for all portal and it just doesn't bring enough benefits to the community and and the village. Um, that being said, so I had the privilege of going to the Biscane Bay Marine Health
Summit last week. Uh, it was actually really interesting and um, pretty much everybody that did any research on the health of the bay, which is like economy driving force, economic driving force
for our area, states that the the bay is in danger. it's a threat and we all need to do as much as possible to to help it out. That being said, uh um this ties into things that the city can do to improve uh things for the community is
uh parks, uh trees, all these things that help absorb and mitigate the damage done by flooding and sea level rise. Uh to echo the sentiment of some of my neighbors as well, if we look at this parcel of land
as a possible park, it could actually bring a lot more benefits as uh I guess climate resiliency planning like infrastructure and any other possible pocket part could be used to that as well. And it actually cost a lot less to
do something like this and to have to do a whole like breaking into the ground and creating sewage and all these things. So we can actually help our village be more resilient if we can plan out things like this. So I think we should make an effort to consider that when we bring in projects to the
village. Um and then and and I'm pretty sure there's plenty of grants because of that economic driving force pretty it's a billions dollars of economic uh
funds that come into South Florida due to the bay. There's lots of grants and lots of research that can be done that we can try to bring into our village being that another thing that was a common um a common point by both brought by most researchers is that the little
river is the biggest poller to the bay out of every canal out here. So, we're constantly the one that brings the most nutrients to the bay and brings the most pollution to the bay. And I would love to see our village do something about that. Um, I had a couple of points. Uh,
tag along. I'm glad every brought about the the lawsuit by our neighbors to SP 180. I would really re like like to see our village join that lawsuit. Uh, and there's there's power in uh power and unity with our neighbors and uh we need
this to to protect our village. Okay. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Hi. So, you guys all know me now at this point. I feel like I'm the only one that ever comes at this point to
>> Oh, I'm Aaron Mara. I live directly across the street on from uh the church on 88th Street. Um, so I'm not really coming to address anyone else here. I'm really only here to talk to you guys. Um, so I am a supporter of the school,
but I have learned a lot from other people because like I'm feeling a little disrespected right now. So >> your full address. >> Oh, just just for the record, just say your full name and address. >> Oh, I sorry. I didn't know that that was a thing.
>> Um, I live at 144 Northeast 88th Street. So the or corner of 88th and 2nd Avenue across the street from the church. I'm Aaron Mara. >> Thank you very much. >> Yeah. Okay. So I do like the idea of having a park in that area. I think
that'd be amazing. I guess my question is do we have $15 million to buy it from a privatelyowned person? Do we have $15 million plus 15 million to put in? And I assume it's not so easy to get grants,
but maybe it is, but it would be nice to know that. Um, I am indeed a supporter of the school and the last time I was here about two months ago, I listed my reasonings why. Um, I'm not going to elaborate on such reasonings and right of trying to keep things short. Um, I do
come on behalf also of a silent group of my neighbors who don't want to come. They don't feel like they can come. They also have kids, busy careers, and as we all know, two working parents and kids at 6:30 p.m. is literally crisis time. So, that's why I'm late. Um,
in general, the last time I stated that I felt like the developers seemed generally interested in being good neighbors and have addressed every single concern that was brought to them. Every issue and payment payment in lee of taxes, traffic mitigation strategies, making the wall surrounding the school beautiful, bringing in sewers, trying to
open up Second Avenue is a corridor for commerce. These are all things that they're trying to do. They are deep pocketed developers who've come in and taken an interest and our second avenue has nothing on it really. So, you know, I think it's worth it to work
with them. So, in listing some of the other things that I wanted to mention, number one, schools are definitely a problem here. To pretend that we don't have an issue with school choice is naive. In fact, it's my number one concern as a parent is where I'm going to send my kid to school. Um, we now have 28 kids in my kids second grade
class at St. Rose because the list is that long that they just feel like they need to open more spots because they need to address the demand for private school. There's a Kushman, Countryday, and Heritage all full. Forget about it. Waiting list super long. And if this
school comes in and funnels some of those kids from the other private schools, those benefits might come to other parents who maybe wouldn't send their kid there, but might send them to Country Day or Kushman. So the argument that the school is too expensive for the neighborhood does never made a lot of sense to me. The tuition I heard is
around 40,000. I can't actually confirm it online, but that's what I heard. This is pretty normal for a private school. Kushman is somewhere from 38 to 50. American Heritage, same thing. Country Day. So this is kind of all pretty similar. The idea that we have a
population of people here that can't afford to go to that school is also a little strange because when I look at the last 3 months of home sales in Elportal, they all range from 650 at the low end to 1.93.
So, the families moving in can definitely afford this school. Um, number three, I heard there were extensive zoning changes happening, but when discussing when Scarlett Hammond was here, she was hired by Elle. Portal to review this, and it seems like the only zoning change was that little tiny
lot, which was going to go from a house to be incorporated to the big lot, and that did not seem like a big deal to me. Um, and I feel like they could probably function without that zoning change. The other thing that I wanted to bring
up is Crystal Ray because I think it is actually important to think back on that. So I went to all those meetings between 2019 and 2020 pre-COVID to every Crystal Ray meeting. I haven't sat with you. We talked about Crystal Ray. I was opposed to Crystal Ray. This was Mayor
Claudia's big idea. She fully supported the school. There was like a peacock express. I remember in 2020 that said the Crystal Ray Mi Miami organization came before planning and zoning to present their site plan in special exception special exception was granted unanimously for the school and that was
at the time to make it a school. Um the school has a beautiful mission statement but it didn't seem particularly pertinent to the demographic of the recent moving people into Elportal. Um, but what was surprising to me is that there really wasn't any opposition to
Crystal Ray. And I don't understand why because I went to all those meetings. I mean, maybe someone can tell me what the difference is because I don't see it. In fact, I've seen what Crystal Ray offered in terms of concessions and it's not nearly what Soulful is offering. So
again, why where was everyone for Crystal Ray? I don't understand. It didn't end up passing, but it went through like four different passings. Anyway, it was moved quite far along.
Um, and many Peacock Expresses and stuff showed that Mayor Claudia thought it was a really good idea. It was her thing to bring in. So, number six, are we hoping that something better will come along? I mean, it's been years of waiting. And I'm going to reiterate, which is my
number seven, I don't want to live across the street from a four-story building. Even if it's four stories and can only have 72 units or 36 per acre, like that's a lot of people in a small area. And I do think we should probably
join the lawsuit against whatever the live local is. I think that live local is the big scary gorilla. Um, and I think it would be really helpful if someone could tell us exactly what like it seems like if Live Local comes in, we
have no say in what happens. Correct. >> Correct. >> There's truth in my statement. Um, they don't have to go by our planning and zoning. But anyway, that's what I had to say. Just so you guys know that I am in favor.
Thank you very much. Appreciate um who's next. We're gonna Mr. Pace. I can't Mr. Pace. >> I know, but I can't do it. I know. I apologize. I can't do it because because
the rule is is one time up per That's what it is. And And I Sorry. >> Hi, Ian McKenzie, 8950 Northeast 4th Avenue. Welcome back, Dr. Ward. I'm so
glad you're here. I really am. And to greetings to all the rest of the council. Sorry, my head's like still at 34,000 ft. I just arrived off um off a plane from uh the great state of Maine. So, um I just wanted to say something. Um, you know, sometimes we have to think
outside the box and not fear being caught with a live local or a um a school if we don't really want it. What about, and I'm proposing this to everybody, I mean, if we're going to be paying taxes anyhow and it's the will of
the people who live here and the voting rights, we could do more like a referendum or something like that and have eminent domain and take over it. And it can either be filed at the state level or it could be filed here. I'm now asking the attorney for input on
that. Is that true? >> We have certain powers, >> right? But that doesn't mean we get it free. >> No, it doesn't mean No, we would have to pay for it. But I checked into it to make a park proposal. It would benefit
everybody. I mean, you know, we'd have a nice park. We could call it to Questa Park or something else. I'm I'm just thinking outside the box, throwing this out in the air because I don't like gray buildings. Okay? Nobody does and nobody wants that and you're going to be taxes
on it anyhow. So, you know, you might as well be uh paying taxes on a park that you could use. So if we go that route or something um and that would require some leg work and making sure that things are proceeded on properly, the council could
do that and that could be an option that benefits everybody living here for a park. Think of that. You could take we could call it the Quest a park like I said and you know have uh funding from the state or the federal government. I checked into it. There are grants for that. There are matching grants. There
are other kinds of grants. available and um some of them go up to $5 million and so forth like that. So I mean there are there's you know funding available. We just need to dig and look into it and not be blocked in or intimidated by a developer that we have to you know like
make a decision what we want and pit each other against us. That's not El Patel. You know El Patel was warm and welcoming. I've lived here 23 years and you know we've gotten this far. We need more trees. We need more things like that. We could have band shell there or
something like that for performances. We could have a little ice cream stand or something like that like in France where they have parks with fountains and people can come and at the you know walk their dogs, sit around and park and it benefit everybody. So I'm just throwing that out there as a thought process. So
don't give up hope and you know hopefully everybody will be can benefit and come to some amicable resolution but that is a possibility then. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much, M. >> Hello. Alita, 12 Northeast 19th Street.
I'm very surprised and disappointed that we changed the rules to limit even even or censor even more our conversations. You know, we don't have town halls. We don't have workshops. We have discussed many times that this format is not working. We're asking the questions. We
don't get answers. The only person that answers is probably Mayor Omar. The others, they don't answer questions. They, you know, like we've asked, you know, for you to give us a little bit more details through the attorney, through the planning and zoning. We
never have those individuals here to speak and answer the questions. So now we're also being limited to like you know like literally 3 minutes very disappointing. Um and we have expressed several times can we please have a conversation when
we ask a question for example if I want to direct a question directly to you I would I would prefer to be answered immediately so that way we can have a conversation not repeat ourselves and talking about the same topic all the all the citizens you know for all the
citizens. So I mean I hope we can take in consideration and other council members can also like say something about this because this is not right. Um we really don't have any conversations in Elportal. They are very limited and during these times we needed
more than ever. Um my first question was that what it would take to Elportal to join the lawsuit that Miami Shores has uh joined regarding the leave local. I think it's going to it's going to be more costly for us later on if we have
to do it in our own than you know than actually join all the other municipalities. The other uh the second point that I wanted to make is that uh what it would take for Elportal to actually start planting trees on the swells. Um the
reason is because as we can see very clearly many developers come in, they do cut the trees. Uh the replacing has been done by palm trees which is really embarrassing. The project across the street has been a beautiful demonstration of they came in. It was um
opposed by many residents here. And what happened? They relocated the trees. It was an insult to all of us because we all know that oak trees you cannot relocate them. It was a waste of money for the developer. It was a waste of time and and effort and voice from the
village from the villagers or from the neighbors here in Elportal and the trees are dried. I don't know if they removed them or something and I can guarantee you that inside their property they're probably replacing them with the smallest tree or probably with a palm
tree which again it's an embarrassment and what's embarrassing is because this new neighbors they do not understand. I mean either we are not expressing clearly to them but they have not understood that we that's our that's what's makes us special as a village the
trees you can go uh on the west side of 95 I 95 and you see like what you know the houses are the same the architecture is the same there's no trees that's what makes this neighborhood I believe but one of the few and the third question
will be the school capacity uh the school project capacity. Uh it was spread uh as a rumor in our neighborhood that they the developer has withdrawn the idea of building a school. That is not true. They are moving forward.
Um have you received any any information any notification? These are this information is public and probably your planning and zoning uh representatives should know that very well. you know, they probably have have
been notified or probably the city manager. Um, have you discussed at least with the planning and zoning as to what's going on with the capacity? What does it mean? Because they have not changed their plans. They continue to uh with the idea
that this uh school should be um you know a capacity of 390 people including three 350 students plus the staff. And to the to the point that the lady made that she feels that we are um we are enabling her from speaking up
and disrespecting her. It's very disrespectful when you say there are 72 units. Oh, you know let's say minimum, you know, let's say that this unit has 72 times three uh people per unit. Oh, that's 210 people, right? Compared to a
to a school that is 400 uh people. So, it's very insulting when people say, you know, like everything is on the on the El Portal uh village minutes and everything else on the record that Christo Ray was not was not passed was
discussed and maybe the mayor, you know, I think you were present during that. Maybe you can give us a little bit more what exactly was discussed because as per my understanding in the meetings that I have seen which they are on YouTube as well for anyone that wants to see everything is very clear that that
school was absolutely rejected by the council members. So that was the the um but school capacity is something that uh concerns me and um I hope that you get a detailed information and h as how the
planning and zoning came to that decision to actually you know uh approve a project like that you would say well we don't have anything in front of us I understand that but can you please have that information hypothetically because we know that this developer is not going
to stop. They're going to pursue it. They're coming and you need to be prepared and it will be nice to have all that information. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. Uh, good evening. My name is Warner
Dreer, 486 Northeast 87th Street. So I have pretty much three items here. First uh is a tree ordinance. As we know we don't have a tree ordinance here in Elporttowal. About a year ago I had submitted one to both uh Mayor Nickerson
uh and also Anders. Right. So a few maybe months ago one of our neighbors Scott said uh there was a new ordinance create or draft proposed or created by an organization that you are running right now on on trees, right? uh uh
council person urban. So now I'm working with Mayor Nickerson and Scott to consolidate that version one that we had submitted originally to you and to Mayor Nickerson. Um and I just
feel this is taking you know and I appreciate all the help with Mayor Nickerson but it's taking a long time. Uh, so I just want to make sure our council person Urban, are you speaking with Mayor Nickerson as far as what we're going to do to finalize? You know,
now we have two versions, right? We have your version, the one I had submitted, even though Mayor Nickerson and I and Scott are working together to consolidate it, but it's already been um already a year, right? So um we have a
area of 16 acres, right? That's lush in trees. So that's the first item. I just want to see how you, Mayor Nickerson and council person Urban are talking about just to move this tree ordinance here to the council into an upcoming agenda. Uh
and and that's the first point. Uh second point is the prior uh resident here, Miss Alita, she spoke about the the development across the street. Uh what is Elbertal doing as far as monitoring uh the observation she
brought up about the tree trees, right? that were uh moved, removed. Uh now we have maybe two out of the three uh perhaps in not the best state, right? They probably brought in some new trees, maybe what's the status on the new
trees? Uh is anybody here from the village monitoring that process with the trees? And third is pretty much to Mayor Nickerson. I know we were been working on the drainage solution to uh here on 4th Avenue Road. I just want to follow up with you. Uh those are the three
points I would appreciate it. Yeah, we could discuss. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? Good in welfare. Good welfare going once. Good in welfare going twice. Okay, we're going to close for good and
Okay, we're going to close for good and welfare. I'm going to bring it back to the council. All right, before we move on, um just want to say a couple of things. I'll get to that part and you can we'll join in on that. Uh C person. All right. So, as far as the uh the
school not being on the agenda, the school is not on the agenda. the school understand I said a few times but the school has to go through two readings almost three readings before it even gets to the council right so this is a
council meeting so it hasn't even had one appro approval through the committee level yet so it's it hasn't gotten any votes hasn't gotten any approval through the committee level so it has a long way to go at least two meetings before it even gets to this level the council
level so it's not going to be on the council agenda anytime soon. It has to get through two committee meetings. Um, but that being said, the last thing and so, you know, I'm I'm looking I see nothing. Maybe they have it, but I see
nothing for May 11th of a resubmission. Um, hasn't been sent to us yet. So, I know nothing of that. The last thing we received was at the beginning of this month. This was on May 4th. So on May well we received it May
5th. So on May 4th the planning and zoning committee wrote, "Hi, I had a brief call with Ben today, Ben Fernandez, which is the attorney of the developers. He said that the client is currently putting the application on hold."
That was May 4th. May 5th, the clerk sent that to us and said, "Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. Um, please read below." So that's the last we got of them that they're putting the whole application on hold. And so so I don't know where it goes from here. So let me just say kind
of answer this question or whatever before I move on. Um normally what that means with developers is that especially in government and I've been doing this for such a long time. When they put an application on hold for a site plan that normally means that they're going to try
to either dump the property. That's usually what it means is they're going to try to get rid of the property. And the reason why they put the application on hold is because they're not going to abandon the application just in case something anything crazy miraculous happens down the road. So they're not going to abandon the application because
then they have to start from scratch. So what they usually do is they'll table or put the application on hold. They'll table or put the application on hold. And that way while that's going on, they usually try to find a buyer for the property. That's usually how it works.
Now, this time may be different. And the reason why this time may be different is because previously SB 182 didn't exist. That's going to kick in in July. That says that private schools up to 150 students can come and
they can, you know, whatever for whatever reason, whatever bypass the commission of council. So, they have that. So, I'm not sure, but as far as we the the um information we've received is that um it's on hold in this table as of
May 4th. So, I'm not sure if we'll know from what I from where I sit, I think that we'll have more clarity after July 1st because then we can really see what they're going to do. Now, prior to July 1, and I told you guys uh last month and
even a couple meetings back that I've been looking to get some live local act specialists from Tallahassee to come in here. Um, actually, one of them is the president of the zoning for the state of the zoning like commission for the
state. And so, we're looking at either June 25th, it's a Thursday, or June 29th. Uh we were supposed to have it this past month, but he had to go uh fly to Europe
for a family emergency, so he had to cancel. So that's the reason why we didn't have it. Um but so that will be happening either June 25th or June 29th, which is a Thursday or a Monday. Uh the Monday right before our well it's after the week after our meeting. So so that will be coming as far as us getting
clarity on exactly for Alpert. This is going to be about Alberta exactly what rights does live local have you know what is it how does it affect us you know what what rights do we have what power do we have to fight back and things like that so all those type of
live local questions will be answered there all right at that uh at that event um as far as the next question yeah so as far as a part I I think that'd be a wonderful idea you know part of the reason why the Last
month, you all who who were here, we, you know, we finally official officially named that park the little peacock park that's behind us, right? Um because the tot was never the official name of the park. It was just a name that you know, our predecessors were calling that that area. So now we have an official name. And part of the reason why um you know I
named it the little peacock park is because you know in my vision one day we will have a large elort central park and hopefully that park will be the peacock park right and so this is the little peacock park. Um I also stuck with that
little because it was you know we were calling it a tot lot so it kind of sticks with the small or little tot type of like um theme of the park. Okay. So, so yeah, I'm I'm 100% uh for that. I think a central park, a peacock centralized Elberttown Park um is
something that we should definitely have something that would be good as far as uh so I spoke about how we didn't receive anything about May 11 for a resubmission. Um as far as the lawsuit, so I heard when you all were talking about the lawsuit and you were saying that there's a lawsuit, which I've heard
of various lawsuits on this on SB 180. Now SB80 is not SB82, right? SB 180 is about code amendments. That's SB 180. And so there's a lot of lawsuits out about that. And I I heard that number mentioned. So I'm not sure
what number you all were referring to, but um when the lawsuit came up twice, uh both individuals said SB 180. That's about code amendments. So SB 180 says that no municipality can update or amend their code in any type of way.
um like add permanent amendments to their code. That's SB80. Um I have a way around that, but we can talk about that offline. Uh but SB82 is the one that kicks in July 1. SB82 is the one that talks about uh if you're a
private school up to 150 students, you can, you know, if you own land, you can come and put that private school on that land up to 150 students. That's SB82. So, I just want to make sure that we have that type of clarity so we're not confused about SB 180 and SB 182. Miss Gomes is always on point. Thank you very
much. Along with Mr. Kelly Gomes. Um, >> but on on that, do we have any information on SB 180 as far as any other municipalities that would be >> So, so I don't have it in front of me, but I know just from, you know, just from the stuff that I do as mayor um and president of the cities, I know that
there are numerous um municipalities that are in lawsuit against for SB180 because they're fighting back on that, you know, tooth and nail because to not be allowed to update your code or amend your code any type of way um is a a problem for every
municipality. >> That is the one we should probably that is the one we should be joining something to that effect on SB1. >> Absolutely. I I agree with you person. Absolutely. Um the next thing is Okay. So, so uh so I
did put a watch order twice on 87th Street between Northeast 2nd and North Miami Avenue. It's difficult because yes, it doesn't have any any sidewalks. That's a larger project and that's not
something that we're not looking into, you know, trust me. As a matter of fact, I think it was my second year as mayor. Um I brought in it was $837,000 to put sidewalks west of Northeast Second Avenue. And what ended up
happening was was that for some reason, I don't know what it was, but for some reason in not only the 11th hour, like we were actually the money was the money came um the money showed up and then for whatever
reason, Congresswoman Federrica Wilson, she pulled the money after a week after we received it and she dedicated it to somewhere else. And so it's difficult to get the money and that's what it is. is always resources. Um, but that's what it's
going to take for full safety on 87th Street when you start to go west of Northeast Second Avenue. Now, that being said, I'll continue to put watch orders on that street. Al also though um and and what helps out
with the watch orders is if we know and I think I even asked it the first time and the two times I put watch orders on the street they were throughout random times throughout the day. If I know exactly like when the you know when the height of the traffic or the speeding is
that really helps out with those watch orders. I can really like zone zone in on those watch orders if I get that information. Um, but that being said, one thing that we all have to agree to with this funding, you know,
that we continuously go for, if it comes in, the residents have to be okay with when sidewalks go in, you will lose a significant amount of, you know, that ride ofway
encroachment, you know, into what might be a foot or two of your front yard, right? Because when when you have these driveways that go out to the street and now when you're implementing sidewalks, there has to be a certain amount of clearance. There has to be things like that. But that conversation we could
have in like a town hall, you know, once the the um funding comes in, understand with that funding does come, that type of change when you have that type of thing. Okay. Uh next, yes. Uh Mr. Kelly. Uh I think a traffic study I think. So the policy has
always been for the um the applicant to pay for the traffic study, right? Because traffic studies, especially detailed traffic studies, they can get costly and and we just try to look, you know, as Elerttowal, you know, we're
small, so we try to look for ways not to have Albertal, you know, spend money for a traffic study for an applicant. I understand this is a different situation, right? Because this would be us kind of like protecting ourselves more instead of like a regular traffic study from a regular applicant. So, I do
agree with that and we'll look into that and see what we can do about that. I appreciate >> um just I have one point on traffic studies. So, one thing that was surprising to me of the traffic studies that we've done over the years for different things, for example, trying to lower the speed limits um was uh uh
there's no recommendations in a traffic study. Um it's just raw data. So, for example, what we learned on 87th Street, uh, when we were making the effort to try and lower the speed limits was that we really did not have a speeding
problem on 87th. It sounds insane because we all know there's a speeding problem. It was a speed limit problem. So, um, so, uh, it showed us very clearly that with the speed limits at the at the where they were, which was at
35 at the time, um, it was, uh, it, you know, the nine over rule and, you know, things like this. The data actually showed that that people were not, you know, out of control or or, you know, redlinining it down 87th Street. it
really was an issue that the speed limit was too excessive and allowed people too much beyond that. Uh and so and so uh uh the the true issue on 87th Street right now uh is very much the lack of
sidewalks um or any type of usable swale where even an emergency vehicle coming through an ambulance for example, there's nowhere for anybody to get off of the road um without going into a ditch or otherwise risking damaging somebody's property or their own property. So uh not to mention obviously
the risk to life as well. So, um, I just want to say that that when we do talk about traffic studies, they're they're um I I do think that there is a risk to having a developer uh be able to uh dictate the parameters of a traffic
study because uh much like skewing statistics, you could you could I could definitely see the scenario where if the developer is outlining the full parameters of the traffic study that they would be able to do that in a way to kind of get the answer they want, right? um or at least be able to paint
it that way. So, um I'm uh personally I'm certainly aware of of those, but overall traffic studies are are pretty mundane and standard. Um and honestly, uh uh as a uh someone sitting on the DAS, I do wish that there would be
something like uh recommendations or or uh things to that effect within the traffic study, but it's not necessarily that way. So, so on the face of it, there's not really much risk honestly of a developer being able to manipulate a traffic study unless I believe that developer would be allowed to outline
the parameters of the study because each study is um prescribed. >> Thank you very much, Council President Urban. Um, as far as Oh, I want to thank uh Mr. Doas um for the the marine health summit um that you attended. Mr. Doas,
he was there. I appreciate that. You know, on you attended Wednesday. on Tuesday um is the municipal day and on Tuesday I passed by in the morning and then who was left there on Tuesday to represent for Elbertal even though she doesn't live here anymore but she's always wanted to be involved is Elizabeth Pa
Carpenter the executive director for the Everglades law center so she she stayed there when I had to leave and go to another meeting on Tuesday which was the municipal like information day so we're we're we're joining up my brother but next next year we'll go together [laughter] we'll go together we'll bring some other people with us because that's
a great Great, great event. You brought up great points about that. Um, yeah, I think Miss Mara, I think, you know, uh, once we find some type of land that we're able to purchase for a park, um, and we have the funds to purchase it,
uh, that would be good. I think also, you know, we're always looking for green space funding, right? Or green space grants. Um, and that just continues on on a a daily and weekly and monthly basis. But those grants are out there.
Uh it's just everybody, you know, there's certain amount number of grants, scarcity, everybody's going for the same grants. And it just so happens, you know, we can get those grants. But uh but usually what they like to do is which comes from the resources that we, you know, we all know about uh in life.
Usually what they like to do is for things like that normally and depending on of course who's in power at the state level at the federal level depends on what they kind of like prioritize but normally they like to for green spaces either find
match grants normally because they don't look at it. So a lot of times in government at the higher levels they look at money as like the the the issue that's driving things. So if it was something like oh we want money for the development of some financial corridor
and it's going to bring whatever whatever in tax dollars that you know this amount will go back to the county and d then you you'll find people to start helping us out. Um and you'll find that you know there there's more money for that. But when it comes to green space and green space development, it
depends on just quite frankly who's in power at the state level and at the federal level and how much they care about environmentalism, green space and things like that. And that'll tell you how much is available um when it comes to that. So it's it's difficult, but that's something that we
continue to work on. Uh Mr. Laida. All right. So prior to you walking in, I understand your frustration. Prior to you walking in, I gave a speech about how um how up to this time, you know, I've been I was really lenient and I understood the the emotion. I understood
the importance of everything we were talking about, but that we were going back to the the rules that have always been there. The rules have always been there for decades. I actually also read at the top of the um the agenda, the statement of the quorum. I read that out loud at the beginning of this meeting.
So, those are the rules. The rules aren't changing. Those rules always have been there. I just have always allowed, you know, everyone to break those rules in the favor of the residents. So, those rules just are just being enforced now. That's all that is. >> Um,
as far as school capacity, I think that's something that you've asked before. I've asked before to our planning and zoning. I'm still awaiting that answer and response. Um, so we can get that information and and we'll still look into that and hopefully I can get that
response that I've asked for even though like I said the last information we got is that the school is on hold the site plan table. That's the last information that we received. Uh, when it comes to the tree ordinance uh for council person Dreer. Yes. So,
council person Dreer, former council person Dreer, uh Scott Cobri or once council person, council person Dreer, Scott Cobriick and myself, um because myself and Urban because of of sunshine can't be on the same meetings too much if it's not a public meeting or whatever public forum or open to the public at
the very least. Um so, council person Dreer Scott Cobri uh and myself have been working on the tree ordinance. So, a long time ago, as council person said, he reached out and sent us a tree ordinance sample. Um, since that time,
Council Person has reignited the the tree board, and Scott Cobri is part of the tree board and part of the the architectural, landscape, and environmental uh uh mayoral board. So, he's able to float between the boards.
So, we're almost down to the end, but what it is is that and we're going to meet probably next week because my schedule this week is really busy. And so, we're we pretty much going all the way through it and we've we've kind of compiled all of them. That's pretty much done. The only thing that's left is that
um I'm going through it and I was I started to do this in our last meeting. I'm going through it and just kind of pointing out certain things like procedurally um for the village of Alberta to make sure like they you know kind of fall in line. I mean, the last couple things we discussed was is there going to be an
appeal process or a variance proc we discussed things like that. So, that's where we're at. So, once that's done next week, then Scott Co will bring it back to the tree board and then you guys will discuss and then we'll have it at
the uh you know at the uh the AL um the artic environmental board and then from there once that is sorted out then we'll bring it to the council. Hopefully. >> Yeah. Even at even at that time might I mean it's going to require a town hall at some point because the proposed tree
ordinance is um um already at a uh it's pretty aggressive. Um uh so the what is working its way towards being considered is uh is really quite aggressive honestly. Um and so
there's going to be there's going to need to be um you know something on the level of a town hall um as it does get close to finality because um because it is comprehensive um it is technical um
and it is detailed and so uh it is um it is going uh to need uh a fair amount of of of outreach and interaction with the community because um uh if it were to go into place in its present state right
now, um it it would be it would be quite shocking. It'd be it would be something far beyond what probably anything else exists, certainly within the county. Um and uh and we hope that we can get it there because it's got teeth in it, too. So, so we're uh the vin diagram of
people working on it kind of like uh you know, got close to being a circle, which is not a bad thing at all. Um, and it was great to see it come from uh, you know, different angles as well. So, there's definitely a community effort behind it and um, and uh, and we should get to a place where we have a strong
tree ordinance with teeth. So, >> thank you very much. Any other questions or comments from the council? >> Uh, what do you want to talk about? >> What do you want to talk? >> I mean, you can talk to it now.
Uh Mr. Geller, I'm going to call on you in a second. Uh for those of you who don't know, there was a uh House bill that was signed by the governor this last week, uh House Bill 803, which is a new um law that states that anyone um
any resident that is not in a flood zone uh will be able to uh do construction building on their property without a permit under $7,500. And I've asked the attorney if he would have some information for it to let all
the residents know uh how that will impact Elportal. >> And I just want to say uh shout out to Mr. Tom Pulium. He was up on that also. That that was coming down the pipe. What we'll do is what we'll do is >> Oh, here it is. Mayor, I got it. Okay.
>> Just had I'm just for some reason. >> Do do you want to speak about during your attorney report? >> It's your pleasure, mayor. >> Or do you want if you have it right in front of you, we can go ahead and knock it out. >> If I can get this to open, just give me a second. I have it right here.
>> Oh, they're open to answer any questions uh that were asked. talking about. >> Well, let me let me let me take a minute. I >> One second, we're we're answering. I do think that every single time we have
this exchange, I I at least can speak for myself. I I think I go through painstaking efforts to let you guys know what it is that I think. Uh whatever those thoughts were that were expressed in former council meetings, they remain.
And I'm still listening to what you guys are saying. The May 11th um mention baffled me as well because I haven't received any new uh submissions to review. So I guess if you want a better
exposition of what it is I think on the topic, I think you can look at some of the meetings previously and see what I think. As far as the format change, I do support that. I think us limiting these conversations to three minutes isn't in
[snorts] any way meant to limit your speech, but it is to give everyone an opportunity to comment. And that's exactly what it is. It is an opportunity to sit and to comment, not debate. I think once we get into the territory of
questioning and back and forths, um I think there's >> But you're now you are being rude. Now this is rude. >> It is. >> Please, Mr. Live. Please, please,
please, please, please. We're trying to keep we're trying to keep the quorum here. Please >> we can't have cross we can't have the cross conversation. >> I think that is that is the problem right. I think there are certain actors who want the conversation to devolve
into a back and forth and I think that that is what deteriorates the fabric of these relationships that we're hearing about on the mic where neighbors aren't talking to neighbors because of something that is occurring in this room. And I think to preserve the
sanctity of what it is this is that we're doing which is not just off-handed conversations and back and forths and rumors and all of these things. We are really taking this information and trying to make a serious decision. So I think we do need to treat our chambers
seriously. There is no other municipality that you can go into and just have this lzair questioning um with the elected officials. If you want a conversation, which I think everyone on the deis is open to a
conversation, the conversation doesn't need to happen with microphones. And I actually think the microphones sometimes cloud people's civility, their um appreciation of the fact that we share space and we are neighbors before all.
Um I think this has become a bit of a a bit of problematic when we see how it has impacted uh the day-to-day relationships for people. I have sat here on this day and I have said on numerous occasions what it is that I
will look for when I am asked to vet an application. Uh I have called for there to be town halls. I've attended the town halls and listened to what it was that were the sticking points for the residents. I hear all those things. I have running notes on all of those
things and all of those things will inform my decision when the time comes where I have to vote on it. There's never been anything said on this day and on my end that precludes you or says that you are not welcome from coming to every single meeting and telling me how
you feel about this topic because it's your village. It's our village. is our house. Show up as many times as you want to. But wherever you show up, whether it be your job, your church, your synagogue, there are rules in which you engage. The rules here are that you will
come in here. You will not scream from the back of the room otherwise you will not be acknowledged. There will be three minutes where you can say whatever it is that you would like to say and know that I am listening. Right? and that if you require additional times, there are
other ways in which you can engage. Us doing anything outside of those parameters lends itself to being an univil discourse. And it is really a disservice to our position up here to
you as residents for us to be engaged in the types of back and forths that I've seen happen when it comes to having someone shouting messages from the deis. And if you don't understand that, I'm
sorry. I do. And I think that other civil people who have interest in making sure that we protect our relationships, I think they understand as well. So, I'm speaking to those folks. And if you don't understand it, then there's really not much I can do. >> Thank you very much, Madam Vice Mayor.
Uh, Attorney Geller, if you want to jump back in. >> Yes, sir. This will be fairly brief. Um, there is an 803. It's a new bill. It's another bill signed by the governor. We've talked about this before.
And I say this with all humility to everybody in this audience. You could talk for a hundred hours to the people on the day is here and it's not going to change the state law.
As one of the council members, I think Councilman Urban was the one who commented, there is a concerted assault on home rule by the state legislature. I was up there. I was in that body. I fought it.
A lot of people fought it. But the people running things do not respect home rule. They don't want this council to be able to decide to do what they want to do so that they
can do what you want to do. They are rigging it in favor of powerful people and companies that get these laws passed, fight it,
argue against it. And I'll take before I get to 803 mayor, let me just take the opportunity to comment to the council as some members have done. There is a wellrespected law firm that is gathering
municipalities to sign up and be part of their lawsuit against these laws. Now, [clears throat] unfortunately, I don't have as much confidence in our state courts as I used to because our
state supreme court in particular has been packed by the same people who are telling the legislature what to do. Nonetheless, the courts are the only refuge unless we elect
a whole new legislature with very different priorities. And that's not that close to happening. You know, the representatives that serve this community in the House and Senate happen to be among the people fighting
the assault on home rule. With all that said, it is my recommendation to the council. I know that our funds are tight. I know that you're dedicated to not trying to raise more money because typically that means
the residents are the ones who pay it in taxes. But for a very relatively low sum of $10,000, we could be a participant in that lawsuit instead of just saying,
"Well, the bigger, richer cities will do it." Now, $10,000 does mean a lot more to Alpert than it does to the city of Miami or Hyia or Miami Beach, but I want to be on record as saying it is my
recommendation that we should join that lawsuit and at least take our chances in court with other cities to strike down these ridiculous laws that are passing.
that say like live local that in a lot of circum it's not a quite across the board and it's not black and white it's not absolute that's not no limit but it's not what these citizens want I know you hear it I hear it there is a
law and you know I my recommendation is for that relatively low price we should step up and participate in that lawsuit and hope that it brings the results that we
would like to see. House House Bill 803 is inexplicable. I I don't begin to understand what this means or how they're going to do it. It's one thing to say that people can
use private inspectors instead of the ones paid by the public where they pay them and what they pay them is between them and they they do what they want to do. That's that's one thing that's been happening for years.
The people who are private inspectors do have licenses and if they sign off on something without doing the job and and something bad happens, they can lose their license and they can be pursued,
you know, in lawsuits both, you know, to hold them accountable civily and possibly criminally and certainly in a regulatory fashion. This just expands it. It puts very strict limits. It says
for most permits, you got to look at look at them and analyze them in five business days. We don't have staff to do that. How we're going to comply with another
unfunded mandate. I mean, I'm sure if you're the one applying for the permit, that's great because it happens quicker. But everybody else wants to be sure it's done right, that these things are done
and inspected the way they're supposed to be. You don't want to be buying the house from the person who got through that and there wasn't a proper inspection. There are some other provisions. There's some things about
basically like pre-built homes that are built offsite that it's better for them. They can use outofstate inspectors in so-called emergencies.
It just generally affects the permitting process. Yes, there's an exemption when necessary to meet federal flood plane requirements and be able to participate in the national flood insurance program.
But it's only to the extent I believe that that is required and that's not going to apply in a whole bunch of other things. There's going to be a new building application that will be standard statewide that the
Florida Building Commission has to write and they have to adopt those standard standards not by this July 1st but by July 1st 20 27. I hope and pray that by the time that happens, another
legislature next year may look at this and said, "Whoa, we went kind of too far." Because there's one really just I I cannot wrap my head around. It says if you're doing
residential construction, certain kinds of work under $7,500, you don't need a permit. Now, that may sound great if you're going to do it, but who's going to make
sure that the people out there doing it aren't setting something up that's going to collapse? or aren't signing off just doing electrical work that nobody has inspected that can start a fire and burn
down a house and maybe catches the one next door. The councilman asked me to explain it. I can't explain that. I have no idea what they're thinking. How does that work? You don't care.
I mean, reforming the process is always a good idea. Just the word reform, you know, people hear that, they're for it. But you're not going to inspect anything. And by the way, who decides if it's $7,500?
If they say, "Oh, yeah, that's under $7500 and maybe it's double or triple that." Who who's going to know? So, no, I can't explain that law. I have no idea what they were thinking of. Another stupid law out of Tallahassee.
If you want to be angry, please be angry at them and ask them what the heck they are doing that puts basic safety at risk. That's
the law, Councilman. That's what it says. I don't know how it's going to work. Thank you so much. Uh I did speak with um the code enforcement officer today and I I went through um House Bill 8003
as as well. Um am I can you hear me now? Thank you. Uh other than being outside of a flood zone, which means you're um if you are in a flood zone, you're not allowed to use 803. And that u um
[clears throat] the thing was the uh the law appears to only affect residential. So this is not going to affect any commercial uh properties. It's not going to affect any uh people that are coming in to create
businesses. Um and it's I think it's supposed to take effect July 1st. And I believe they also told me that the properties that are going to be doing work still need to come to the uh building department and state they are
doing work. Uh they can uh submit a contractor payment invoice estimate something like that because the uh code officer still needs to drive around and find people who are doing work without a permit that are above $7,500. Um, of course, hopefully next meeting the
attorney will be able to confirm that as we learn more about the bill. Um, one thing I wanted to say, uh, not regarding the bill is, um, I was informed about the flyer that passed was passed around about, uh, May 11th submission for a
soulful application. I went to the building department. I spoke with Franco. He called Scarlet from Cordino Group. Um I the whole thing was that the last submission was in February. I have a screenshot of the um actual um submission. So I don't know why anyone's
saying a May submission was submitted by Soulful. Um the last thing I heard was the email from their attorney stating that the whole project was on hold. Um, other than that, I very much appreciate what the vice mayor said earlier. It
it's it's very important we keep their quorum in here and uh if you go to other uh municipalities, uh not only are they not allowed to yell out from the crowds, but if some of them are being told that if someone already came to the stand and said something, they don't want you to repeat it
multiple times. Um, I know I've stated and I'm sure all the rest of people on the council as are the same. We're always open for questions. We're willing to talk with you after hours, before, after, whenever you need to do it. I mean, I'll take you out for a drink and we'll we'll talk. Um, but we don't need
to um yell, chastise, call out for the crowd. This is basically um a state where we have to have a very um a very good decorum so that everyone's time is not wasted. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Counc.
>> Um, let's see if I can regain my train of thought here. Um, I just wanted to say that uh I definitely think that the village of Elportell should join whatever effort there is among other municipalities regarding SB 180. Um,
this uh sounds like like the first thing I think of is uh LAR Homebuilders, for example. if there's a cutout for uh prefab homes and things like this. I mean, uh in addition to that, um uh it seems like there's a lot of open-ended questions on okay, so if it's under
$7,500, I don't have to get a permit. However, does that mean I can build something that goes against the code? Um so, uh if someone could put a um you know, whatever. I mean, fence fence immediately comes in mind as the first
thing as far as um what somebody might be able to build a section even just a section of fence fencing that uh that might fit under those parameters. And so um uh I certainly think Elportal should be uh going to the mats in protection of
our uh codes, whatever that looks like. So that raises a lot of concerns. Um guys uh I work in retail and so uh since January of 2025 uh the middle class uh
retail uh market has disappeared. Okay. January 2025 is when the middle class stopped shopping the middle of the shelves. All right. Entirety of the ent everyone who considers themselves middle class in this country started diving for the
bottom shelves. January 2025. Okay. Um, I'm a sales rep in the stores all day long. I've lived in Miami for 25 years. Worked in hospitality almost the entire time. Last five years I've been
in retail. Billionaires are not upset about the middle class disappearing. You are witnessing consolidation, mergers, and acquisitions. So what this bill 803 seems to benefit
would be an extremely large company with a whole bunch of lawyers. When people say small business in this country, your average functionally illiterate adult thinks mom and pop. Small business is not mom and pop. Those
businesses don't even make the roster as far as business is concerned when making laws. Small business in this country could be $500 million a year annual revenue. Welcome to Florida.
>> Thank you very much. Um, any last questions or comments from the council before we move on? >> Just one last question. Uh, Attorney Geller, I appreciate your guidance and your counsel about joining in to the lawsuit. Um, I I want us to kind of just
take a look at this moment and kind of breathe it in. Um, it is important for us to get information from the experts. And in this situation, uh, our lawyer is giving us legal advice that is based on his extensive years of knowledge, um, on
the city's real financial position. Um, and these types of decisions or guidance based on facts and intimate knowledge with the municipality, I find very persuasive. And I would love for our residents to really um you know take heed that there there are experts at the
wheel who are looking at these matters. And though there are tons of rumors and I know chat GBT is king on lots of things um real life legal advice um and legal experience um and real world experience and these types of things are very persuasive and we should rely on
and we should give credence to. So thank you. I appreciate it. And let me just say if I might, as mayor, the thing is this. I mean, I think this lawsuit is wellounded. I've looked at it. I've seen what
they're looking to do. Um, I don't candidly have as much confidence in our courts as I had 10 or even five years ago. you know, it goes to the Supreme Court like
with the Supreme Court of the United States these days. The Supreme Court of Florida has just allowed things that I just never imagined a court would or could do. The consideration is this. I work very
hard to try to keep this village out of litigation simply because we don't have the money. I mean, you know, I'm not going to weigh into whether we have some way to get millions to buy a park. If there are grants to do it, that's great. I'm not
the budget guy here, but I I do try to make sure we don't spend our funds. 10 grand, relatively speaking, is it a lot of money compared to lawsuits? It is not,
but it is much more significant to us than it is to the city of Miami, Hy Alia, or Miami Beach. So, I'd love to see us in the lawsuit, but it is also true that that lawsuit's
going forward with or without us. If it's successful and strikes down the law, it would strike down the law as to everybody, not just the municipalities
who participated. So, I want to be clear the law. I I'm sorry that I can't come up with another word, not just the one law. The way they're I mean, I get live local. If you're interested in workforce and
affordable housing, live local is a good thing, but it's being done in a bad way. They could do it more sensitively and have some room for local governments. the Senate Bill 182, the ha the other
House bill we were talking about, and now this insult, the only word I'm sorry that I can give you is it outrages me.
I know this stuff. I understand it and it makes no sense. It's wrong legally, ethically, and if I can dare use this word, morally.
But I don't pay the bills here. You guys have to do that. And this very capable, excellent, hardheaded manager of yours has to pay the bills. and 10 grand just means more to him than it
does in bigger cities. And I get that. So, let me be clear. I'd love us to be in this lawsuit, but I understand if we got to let some of the big dogs have this fight, too, because I know that none of you sitting
up there wants to raise the taxes that our citizens are paying. You voted last year under difficult circumstances. You voted last year to cut the millage rate. >> Definitely consequences. >> I think this is a good segue into the
the second portion uh is whether or not the city manager could uh come back with with a couple of proposals as to if and how uh we could possibly come up with that amount. um and we can as a body
look at it and and see uh what that looks like. >> Thank you very much, Madam Vice Mayor. Appreciate that. Um before we move on, you guys, just for clarification on my side, um not sure about Council Person Winters, uh you know, I appreciate what
he was saying about the submission. This doesn't change that, you know, as we have it. The last thing that we have is the May 4th um from the uh the staffing and then the May 5th to us about them putting it on hold or putting it um or t
putting putting on hold and tableabling the site plan. But I just want to be clear um because we are on the record. The last submission that I see I received for the site plan was November 2nd, 2025
at 9:01 a.m. That's the last submission I received. Now, Council Person Winters brought up February, but the last thing I see there for February, and this might be what he's looking at, is for the plumbing.
So, there was a plumbing submission on February 2nd, right? That's when Okay. I just want to make sure so that you know because we're on the record so that people don't say, "Oh, you guys said it was February." So, the last the last site plan we got submitted was was uh was November 2nd, 2025 at 9:01 a.m.
But they did do a sub a submission for plumbing um in February. So, that was that's what that was, just to be clear. All right. So, we're good. You were right. Thank you very much. All right, you guys. Let's move on. Um uh I had a meeting today. >> Mayor, just for the record, I apologize
for interrupting, >> but two clarifications and conferring briefly with the manager. Um as the clerk had unavoidable personal obligations tonight, I do want the record to reflect that we have a full council. There was not a full roll call
taken, but all five members of the council are present tonight along with the village manager and um Greenspoon Martyr village attorneys represented by me. So, let the record be clear on that point and then in conferring briefly
with the manager, neither of us has seen any kind of submission dated May 11th. I have only seen what was referenced um I think by you that uh an email from the attorney for the developer says that
they were had not resubmitted and they were on hold right now. If there was any kind of resubmission on May 11th, neither the manager nor I have seen that. I can't swear somebody didn't come
to village hall and hand something to somebody because I don't sit there and I'm not a fly on the wall and there aren't cameras to record it. But neither the manager nor the attorney's office has been notified that any such thing
has been submitted May 11th or otherwise. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Um, moving on to F. We're going to have to table that again. I'm not sure what we're going to do. I had I had lunch earlier today um with a couple of uh county commissioners and uh Commissioner
Regalado was there and she was like, I apologize, mayor, but I have this thing I have to do tonight. So um so she couldn't be here again. Consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve consent agenda? >> Moved by Council Person Lightoot Ward. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Vice Mayor Martin. All in favor say I. I.
>> Moving right along. Um the next is a resolution. Attorney Geller. I just handed the manager the resolution for you to read into the record. >> Yes, sir. Just for the record, uh we've done item G, the consent agenda, which was just the minutes of a previous
council meeting. We're now on item H, resolutions. There is only one. It is H1 and it is a resolution of the village council of the village of Alpertal, Florida pro proclaiming the intent to create an Alpert historic preservation
board and now acknowledging the forthcoming adoption of a village ordinance to formally establish said board providing for directions implementation and an effective date. That's the resolution made. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
All right, you all. Miss Lucio, you can come on up now if you want to. Um, so this right here, you guys, is a resolution. So, this board has to be officially created through an ordinance. All right. What this resolution is saying is it's saying that the village of Elqual
intention on creating a historic preservation board. So what this resolution right here does is with that intention, it's it begins to open us up to funding and things like that that we could start to work on um to be brought in for that. The details of this. If you
look at your one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, where seventh. Whereas, it says, "Whereas the village council further acknowledges that a forthcoming ordinance of the village of Elporttowal will formally establish the historic preservation board and shall
comprehensively define its official wording and language as well as its pro processes, policies, procedures, systems, protocols, guidelines, and rules and regulations. That's all done within the ordinance.
Okay. This is the resolution that says that we have full intention on creating historic board ordinance or a historic preservation board. How that board is going to be set up that is in the ordinance just to be clear with everybody. All right. I'm gonna let you
come in right now and then I'm going come in the council. Go ahead. >> Okay. Um, first I want to thank Mayor Nickerson for putting forth tonight's resolution proposing the formation of an Elportal Preservation Board.
And in I encourage the council to vote in favor of this resolution. As you've heard tonight, we have a recurring issue in our village. Historic homes and landmarks like Raider Church are being demolished without proper
oversight, review, or consideration. In the case of Raider Church, it was demolished before a built plan was even approved. Now, instead of an iconic gateway into Elportal, we have an empty lot. I personally don't want to see that
happen here ever again. This is an opportunity for the village to commit to what makes this place truly special. That our homeowners, civic administrators, and business owners have retained the unique characteristics and
charm of this village by gently restoring and maintaining their properties in a way that respects their original design, environmental impact, and scale of their neighborhoods. This will be an opportunity to formally
recognize those who keep our village beautiful and healthy and will provide a muchneeded extra layer of protection to keeping Elportal Elportal. We are the last hold out of original Miami. In fact, it's rumored that our
area was the capital of the ancient sequestation and where the little river bends was once boiling springs, potentially sought after as the fountain of youth, long before Florida's oldest city, St.
Augustine, came into the picture for European explorers. At the turn of the 19th century, pineapple in Countai was abundant, driving the establishment of commerce right in the area where this village hall stands.
We continue to be what remains of original Biscane country. First owned by Arva Woods, Julia Tuttle, and Fernie McVey, and later platted by DC Clark and Lee T Cooper. We haven't changed much
since those notables laid down stakes here and we should be proud of that. It's what gives us our signature vibe that is part untamed and part sanctuary. I believe Elportal can carve out a
future to be even more of a remarkable place and this is the first step towards that. I think our mayor understands understands that and sees the most valuable residential neighborhoods are those that are sustainably preserved.
Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Miami Beach's Art Deco District, Miami Springs, Miami Shores, and hopefully next Elportal. I hope that Mayor Nickerson will continue to push against the strong forces to overdevelop Elportal and
instead invest in retaining our timeless archaeology, healthy ecosystem, and significant architectural history. I also want to ensure homeowners and the council that this board is not intended to be a
quasi HOA for the city. It's not designed to make your renovations more difficult. And that's, you know, sometimes people think that that's what's going to happen with preservation boards. Um, in fact, it's simply to recognize how Elportal has contributed
to Florida history, to recognize the homeowners behind the hard work of preservation, and to provide guard rails against careless and unsustainable development in our village. The preservation board will be a resource to homeowners who are interested in getting their homes
designated historic as well and will ideally serve as a vehicle to gaining national historic district designation in Elportal. That national piece is very important because it gives us leverage over the state. We are at a junction right now where we
need to choose a direction. One that will irreversibly alter what remains of Elportal and destroy our quality of life and our charming aesthetic or one that allows our history to inform our future and respects the respite that
our village provides its residents against the rockous and diabolical developments in the city of Miami next door. I encourage you to choose the latter to approve this resolution for the good of the village and to ensure better planning and current better
planning for current and future generations of Elportal. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate it. So, this is what we're going to do. I'm going to get comments and questions from you all and then I'm going to open up to you all as residents and then we'll close it there. We'll come back over here and Miss Lucio might come back if
she has any um anything she would want to add before we vote. All right. So up here uh you guys I don't know who wants to jump in. You guys go ahead and jump in. >> Uh Mr. Attorney can I borrow your uh mind again? >> The uh six uh whereas it states that the
will create a historic preservation board as an advisory and regulatory body. Can you define for me what the regulatory body would mean um for the village? >> Yes sir. We've imposed certain regulations. So they will be voting and imposing laws or they will be creating
something that's sent to the council. >> The council is a policy setting body. The council will determine what the ordinance says, what the extent of review is permitted and what they are allowed to look at and what they are
not. That's a province of the council. But the board would be there to investigate and enforce the policy regulations that the council sets.
>> So the actual body of this advisory board will therefore come up with ideas. They will vote on it and they will then present it or they will uh what is how does that work? >> No sir. No sir. >> Okay. >> You come up with the ideas. you adopt an
ordinance that sets out what the parameters are. They're not there to come up with ideas. They're there to get specific get your fingers dirty information to see if the policy that is set by the
council in the ordinance is being complied with or not. >> But as you just stated, we come up with the policy, but it says they're also advisory. So they're advising us, correct? >> If they determine that there is a going
>> a part of the ordinance that could be better, they are empowered to make suggestions to the council. That's what makes them an advisory body as opposed to simply
enforcing regulations. But they have no power or authority to enforce those ideas. That belongs to you because you are elected by the people and this is an
unelected body. So their power must be um limited. So that power resides with the elected representatives of the people. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh before I go out to the residents,
anyone else? You good? Okay. All right. So, we're going to open it up to the residents. Um you guys come up, say your name, address for the record, and uh the floor is yours to speak about the Historic Preservation Board.
All right. Okay, we got one. Noel Pace, 206 Northwest 91st Street, also own property 8661 Northeast 2nd Avenue. Uh, I support this initiative. Um, I also support reasonable
development. Um, I also support uh reasonable consideration of the rules that are in place. And so, you know, at the same time, I think it's important to represent and recognize history. I think
we also have to reinforce the rules we already have in place here. Okay? We have a community plan. We have ordinances. We have things. I mean, any exceptions that are made to any of those rules should only benefit the entire
community. Uh, that's why they were put in place. I think the historic board and I think Ashley's work is excellent. Um, I do want to talk about, you know, she did mention that, hey, that it was done before there was even a a community, I
mean, a property uh proposal or plan that was even put in place and they already knocked down uh that historic building. Um, at the same time, we still don't have any real plan for all of their comprehensive development they
have here. It was mentioned before by a nice woman. She's like, "Well, hey, how do we have the money to buy that as a park?" Well, remember this council is very powerful, very uh seasoned uh and knows that it could use that property as
a negotiation chip for probably some exceptions that they want at their other Little River property. Okay? Including height restriction, removal, and so on. Okay? they could donate that park and l you know basically as an exaction
to get some concessions for their other development that I'm sure they have plans for but they haven't shared yet and so I think all this ties together. I I think historic preservation is very important. I also think our current rules are also just as important. I think you know you're combining forces
here I think is the right move here especially in light of what's happened recently. Um, but I do think this council should consider that. I mean that that part I mean we talk about a future park or whatever where right so things are getting built out obviously a
whole bunch of properties have been bought in terms of commercial development right on Northeast 2. You have the clear land now. Hey, you know if they want what they want and it's good and it benefits the whole community by giving us a park in return where it is. I think that's a great thing and I
think that what Ashley's doing as well. Yes, I have a hundred-year-old house here. It would be great to see those houses recognized with a placard or something. Uh, you know, for the history that's here and you know, not only was there pineapple and and that other item, but there was there was lemon trees
around here as well. There was a whole bunch of things. >> So, so thanks for your consideration of all this. >> Thank you very much, >> Mr. Nova. Uh, Mr. Manager, you have people behind you that people behind you trying to get by? Colle
335 Northeast 87th Street. Uh I support the creation of the uh preservation board of El Portal. I think there are many homes. There's actually I know that there's one historic home that was moved from downtown Miami over here to Miami
Avenue. I believe it was the wood frame home and I think Dr. Ward you know that one. It was >> back in the days it was boarding house for black people >> that weren't allowed to stay at hotels. Yep. >> Back in the 20s. So um and it's in our
in El Portal and um you know I think there's so much history here and we go back and forth of not just the Indian mound I have found artifacts in my backyard and I guarantee you in the empty lot where the church
used to be. I guarantee you there are artifacts under there. Guaranteed from the Tquestas and probably from the old uh Count Thai uh factory that was there back in the 1800s. And I know there was not a whole lot here, but I think the
little bit that we do have, we are a very young city. uh Miami and I'm speaking in Miami in general, but I think that whatever the little bit that we have, we need to preserve or at least be respectful and be respectful of what we do have. We
don't have a whole lot. I mean it's not our village is not very big but I think that if all the other municipalities like Biscane Park, Miami Shores, Coral Gables, all these they do have preservation and Coral Gables I think in Coconut Grove are one of the ones that
have really been very very active um with that. So I do support it and uh I do feel that we should respect the uh Cherret and all the other decisions that have been done in the past. maybe we should revisit some, make
modifications and I think that you know having an open conversation about this and uh working on these things as a community is is very important and it is crucial. So I do support it and uh thank you for giving me the opportunity to
speak. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Navaro. >> Good evening again, Ian McKenzie, 8950 Northeast 4th Avenue. Uh board members just like to say that I do support the idea. I think it's a great idea. Um I I
was just visiting again a town, one of the top five towns in Maine. And it's known because it has its charm and its uniqueness. And for instance, there are no chain restaurants, no McDonald's, no nothing
like that. They will never have it. Um, the only thing the the old pharmacy closed years ago, so they had to put in one, but they put in such I mean, you would never know it's a CVS or a Walgreens. I don't even know which one it is, but it's a pharmacy. Um, so these
are really uh good things, but I think what we need to do is see some kind of a mission statement, kind of a uh plan what the whole scope of the um uh preservation board is going to do. um it shouldn't be infringing on uh the um
people, but what we would like probably to see is something that helps preserve things um helps people maybe even, you know, source, you know, uh abilities to help finance preservations of their homes. You know, we have beautiful homes
here. And I know I mean, I was just Ubering back here and the Uber driver said, "Wow, these are really nice homes." And they are. They really are charming and you know those I mean I like modern architecture too but um you know sometimes they look out of place uh
if they're not well landscaped and sort of hidden and softened a little bit. So we need to definitely look at that and uh I think um you know I support it. So take it away. >> Thank you very much Miss McKenzie. Appreciate it. Who's behind?
>> Hi, good evening. My name is Ramona, 136 Northwest 88 Street. Um, I support the historical preservation. And by saying that, I was just going to read a little piece of um, David Walters. He's a
professor emmeritus from the urban design in UNC Charlotte and he talks about actually um the form of base code okay which is something that I think should be understanding a
little better and following to try to preserve our historical sites uh such as our ancient oak trees uh teas mount found we might have artifacts actually under buried under the the church that
was destroyed. So he says um the form based goals are tools communities and developers can use to create that kind of walkable urban neighborhoods
that we all like to have but at the same time preserve our historical neighborhood. A plan is a vision. A code is the legal mechanism to implement that vision. So I know that we all have a vision for what
we want for our airport. But we have a code. So that code is our legal mechanism to preserve and save our community. Sometimes communities make plans
but the zoning is never altered to match that plan. What gets built conforms to the code because it has to legally but not to the plan. So, we do can change our plans,
but we shouldn't change our codes. And that goes to the developer that is trying to change our codes to build something that he's probably going to be the only one benefiting from it.
Thank you again. >> Thank you, Mr. B. Thank you, Mr. Roas. Daniel Roa, 60 Northeast 86 Street. I I am in favor of a a creation of this board. I think it's very important to
have balance in our in our village and I think that uh that there's a there's a great push from developers and that there in due process and development that fits our village is okay but I think uh conservation board can help
bring balance. There we go. Yeah, I think this can help bring balance to our our whole process. That being said, I also think that it should also work in a in a coordination with our trees and our tree board
considering that there's some historic trees in our village that we should protect and I'm sure they've been here as long or longer than some of our homes. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Hi Kathy Emmery again, 169 Northeast
87th. I have a beautiful home that I consider an historic home and there is no doubt that the developers, these developers have had their eye on it and made enormous offers on the property. But it has like 15 beautiful
oak trees that I wouldn't let anybody have for any amount of money if I thought it was going to be destroyed. And I was on the community council for 10 years on the other side of the boulevard and uh community council 7 and
uninccorporated date and our main focus was historic preservation of that area over there. We had the canal front um on 89th street deemed historic to preserve the coral rock walls seaw walls. We had
the uh the street 87th Street is already deemed historic across from Phyllis Miller from the Boulevard to 8th Court. So I'm in favor of a board if it's done properly and with good intent.
So that's all I have to say. >> Thank you very much. >> Good evening again. I'm Denise, 173 Northwest 88 Street. I have some questions. So, number one, um there was a a man in his family that came here
once and they had an older house. I think it was a historical monument maybe in 1918 or something like that built and he came with a variance. So, if we have a committee and my committee says, "Oh, yes, that's a nice beautiful old house. We going to put it on the list." and
then somebody comes and buys him and then wants to destroy him to put up something new because you know lots of people here just keep putting up things new then um how does that work but Mr. May I know he going to answer me later,
so let's move on. Right. Okay. Then, um, I have another question. What if the people say, "Okay, well, because it's historic, we're going to leave this, this, and this." And they get approved by the council and like the two houses that are in front of my house, they chop down everything and they don't give a
damn about anything. That that's another question, right? Then since we have old trees, do you guys get to say, "Well, this is an old tree and it shouldn't be removed, too, or is it just houses?" These are all my questions, right? And then I want to know if we disagree with
this this thing about one good and welfare and then y'all shut up and listen to us. If we disagree with that, do we email? And who we email? If we do email, Amen. Um, George Alvarez, 165 Northwest 88 Street. Never wishing to ever again
follow Mrs. White on a stage of any sort. [clears throat] Uh, I I support the um formation of this advisory committee. I applaud the mayor for getting it on the agenda so darned
fast. Uh, to maintain decorum, I'll say darned fast. And uh, and thank you to whomever uh, Miss Lucio and and and whomever else was part of it. Um, obviously there's going to be the devil's in the details. There's going to be a lot of things to think about. The extent to which this any of this is
illegal, the extent to which any of this may be be maybe too much of an imposition on property rights and property owners. I believe in carrots rather than sticks. And since the state of Florida has decided to squeeze a
little bit of our home rule away from us, in the name of dealing with an affordability crisis, may we not use an opportunity like this to incentivize people to build ADUs,
that's accessory dwelling units in their backyard. In other words, you can rent out a small apartment, perhaps your converted garage. Some people I know that plenty of people do the Airbnb thing. The state of Florida says that Elpertell cannot put the kaibos on it. I
say we use that environment, that legislative reality and incentivize people to number one maybe hold on to their older homes as as they get older in their older homes and can no longer
afford uh both maintenance, insurance, taxes rising and taxes will rise as El uh grows. Maybe people who have the space, even people who are
in irregularly shaped yards, can build an ADU. And if we incentivize them to price it in such a way that meets somewhere between 80% and 120% of AGI,
then we are helping to do our role in dealing with an affordable housing crisis in Florida. But we are getting ahead of the developers who are going to steal our second avenue or other parts or who are undoubtedly going
to try to take different parcels, put them together. And as you know, you can build many, many more apartment units on two or three parcels that were put together than you could on one parcel and then one parcel and then one parcel. If
20% of El Patrell were incentivized, whether it's by some uh bill like the one uh attorney Geller mentioned and which the $7,500 I forget was >> HB3 >> 803.
Perhaps each and every one of us could be earning money to keep us in our homes as we age. Perhaps we could be giving El some of that rent. Perhaps we could be being a
part of the solution to a housing crisis. And then it will be much easier for us to maintain our zoning and not allow things like Second Avenue to blow up to six stories or eight stories. I
know there's a lot of de details in that devil as well but any such opportunity is an opportunity. What I meant to say is any such dilemma is an opportunity and this is one that could help
give Elpertell some tax base could help people residents earn some extra money. There's ways to do this that are regular to normal kind of housing policy. There's ways to do this that are normal
and not excessive. And hopefully this can help if you guys feel that this is true um can help current and future citizens to be invested in Elprell historic homes and
in El Patel >> and their and their future. So, if if I may suggest uh that you perhaps as you instruct uh uh manager Roseman to look into some of
these details as you guys uh um consider them yourselves if that could be brought in and examined. I'm sure I did not think of everything, but I think this is a great way to marry ideas about
earning money as a capitalist, about property rights as a property owner, and in a way getting ahead of a boom that could steamroll Alpertell if we already have enough housing. So, it's an idea. Uh, I'm certainly open to talking to uh
any member in the deis about it and vice versa. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Alvarez. Mida 12th Northeast 90th Street. My name is Alita. Thank you so much for putting this resolution in place. That's exactly what
we're talking about. Action steps, you know, actually something in concrete. And thank you, Ashley, for making this happen. Um, it's exactly what I was ex asking. uh although you know we're not allowed to speak or have the questions being answered immediately but this is
exactly what I was asking please let's have action steps instead of council member expressing their emotions we are trying as much as we can as residents not to do that but to come here with facts to come here with things that we have researched regarding the projects
coming into Elportal and we are sharing those with you but we expect you to do the same thing and not call us disrespectful and not call us, you know, uh uh like we're hackling with you. We're not heckling with you. This is
exactly an example how some something was came to Mayor Omar and was actually put in place, right? When you don't answer the emails, when you don't answer any any you haven't created any town hall for this conversation, I don't know how can you
call the residents disrespectful. So again, thank you and I approve this because this will help you the council members to have more uh research in place to have more people look into that to have more ideas and there's nothing wrong to open this conversations to the
residents. That's what we have been asking for such a for months. I think it's about two years now. And we always sound like we're hackling with you and we're against you. We're not against you. We're just saying listen to us. Open the conversations to us. Don't censor us with three minutes
conversations. So, thank you. Have a good night. >> Thank you, Miss Alita. >> Joanie Gomes, 269 Northwest 86th Street. I'm in favor of creating the board to preserve Alportal. And since it was discussed previously, I have the um link
for the miamiday.gov website where you can track where this developer is submitting all the paperwork. So, I know that you might be waiting for them to submit it directly to you, but since it's been on, you know, ongoing for six months, it might be a good idea for you to be tracking it as well as we are. And
I'm happy to share this with you guys via email, hopefully it won't end up in your junk like it did last time. But just for the record, it's here May 11th, 2026. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Thank you, Miss >> Anyone else? good and welfare or public
comment just no hearing none. Seeing none, let's go back to the council. Do I have any final comments or questions about the resolution? >> Go ahead. >> Uh, so I appreciate what everyone had to
say. Um, there was a lot of really great information. Um Ian McKenzie, I agree with you and um I think that we should also find out what the mission statement is for this board. Uh because I do support the idea of preserving Elortell's history, especially after
what we've seen recently. My concern though is making sure that whatever we create does not unintentionally create a burden or unnecessary uncertainty for homeowners. So, creating a board without framework with the best of intentions,
what could possibly go wrong? Um, there's going to be a lot of questions for what the board is going to do or where they're framed at. Um, some of these questions include what will the board actually do when a homeowner wants to renovate, expand, or demolish a property? Will this create additional
steps or delays when residents before they can move forward with permitted work? How will the board determine historic significance for properties that have been heavily modified over time? And I say that because I do live in one of the older areas here in Elportal. And I can tell you that there
used to be a pump house. There used to be a boat house. And these um were some of the original buildings in the 1920s30s and um they are now completely converted to actual residence. So that's not a boat house anymore. And the
interior of it is not a boat house. It's a beautiful resident uh residence and same with the pump house. The pump house is now a residence as well. So, are we considering those historic because their exteriors are historic or are we considering it the interior as 90%
made up by new developers. And of course, I'm not in favor of tearing any of this stuff down. This is not what I'm trying to get at. Um how will we ensure homeowners clearly understand whether their property is affected and what their rights are? So, if this is about
developers, I believe the board should be focused on the developers, on the companies, and we should make sure we're not attacking homeowners. I mean, if it's the LLC's and the companies and that are tearing down our beautiful properties, maybe that is something that
should be addressed. But if we're going to put chains on our homeowners and suddenly create regulations that are going to choke them and and starve them from any kind of financial create financial burdens for them. That is something that would actually make me a
little worried. Um, one neighbor here said that they were in favor of the board if done properly and with good intent. And I think that's the most important thing because it's it's a great idea to have a historic board. It's a great idea to get all of the neighbors, residents together to jump on the board and and help out because it's
always great to have this advisory for the council, but I think we all agree Elortell has a unique history worth preserving. We just want to make sure that we move forward correctly. We want to do so where it's clear, balanced, and does not unintentionally create burdens for residents. Um so personally uh I
would like to give the this my vote but I would like one word removed from the entire thing and that's the six whereas where it's defined as an advisory body leave that there but remove the word regulatory body um from the resolution. Um this will or the other option would
be to further make this board about historical um board and protecting us from developers or [snorts] taking over um properties that are um actual uh
non-residents. I see a smile on your face. I'll I'll step back. >> All right. So um so I I read this before but in in in whereas number seven it says the village of council further acknowledges that a forthcoming
ordinance this is the resolution a forthcoming ordinance of the village of Alberta will form formally establish the historic preservation board and shall comprehensively define I read this before its official wording
and language as well as its processes policies, procedures, systems, protocols, guidelines, rules and regulations. So all those questions will be in what? The ordinance that it says right here,
the forthcoming ordinance. All of those questions will be answered in the ordinance. Further, the final whereas says des it is the desire of the village council to formally declare its
commitment to historic preservation. That's what we're doing here. Every question in detail is answered through the ordinance. Also understand ordinances have two readings before they become law. Resolutions have one,
ordinances have two. So even after the first reading, changes can still be made and adjustments can still be made for the second reading. We're not even at the first reading of an ordinance yet. So all and um I apologize, Miss White. Um even your question with the house,
right? Um that would be so those type of things will be defined in the ordinance, but I can quickly kind of just say so for a property that if it would be under like historic preservation or go through historic preservation board, it makes it more difficult for then you know what you're talking about. That's what it does. Yeah. It's another like, you know,
it's it's another step that we have for oversight and overview that for to make it more difficult for people to like ruin those type of things. So, to your point, Miss White. Um, and as far as trees and things like that, we could possibly put that in the ordinance, right? We can speak to the tree board,
speak to the AL mayoral board, and we can put those type of things uh in the ordinance. As far as the good and welfare, [laughter] that would have to be changed through a resolution. Um, that's in there. I believe I'm not It's not in our charter. I know our charter front to back. I'll check
the code, but those type of things usually don't go into code. So, I think just a resolution would be able to change that. Um, but you would have to at least have three votes from individuals up here to be able to change that. So, so that's how that goes. Uh, Madam Vice Mayor, I saw you want to jump in. >> I I do. I just have a question for you.
First of all, uh, love the idea, but I also understand um the devil is in the details. So, I I understand your trepidation, Councilman Winters, I wanted some more guidance on the process from getting us to kind of this really great idea to the final ordinance. Uh
what type of engagement and from whom are you anticipating? >> So, it's um not only with uh uh Miss Lucio, but also we're going to be bringing in, you know, residents who want to kind of like, you know, overlook it and and go through it and things like that. also understand that when it comes
to you know whatever is created right so any ordinance that's created right when it comes before us we can look at it and we can say I don't like this I don't like that I think this should be changed that should be changed and we can even table it on the first reading before it goes to a second reading but even in between a first reading and a second reading things can be adjusted and
changed um in ordinances so there's going to be steps along the way >> I I love that I just know that we have a very involved um absolutely citizenry and we there definitely should be some input before we kind of have even that
first blush at it. Um, just to really get everyone's opinion on what their sticking point may be or the parts that they're particularly interested in. But yeah, I love the idea and also am keenly locked in on how it's executed because
it can go a lot of ways, but I think it'll go good. >> Absolutely, Madam Vice Mayor. I appreciate you. Um, any other questions or comments? >> Yes. to uh uh I was I wanted to make the clarifying point as well that um this
resolution gets us to the process of uh forming the board under an ordinance. Um and then additionally um so I grew up in an exceptionally strict environment uh as a youth. Um, I think I have a kind of natural uh tendency
towards bit of a rebellious nature and that certainly was exacerbated by uh by growing up in such a a incredibly strict environment. Having said that um at 15 I started working in food service.
By 19 um I was I was uh very involved in food production working in a restaurant and uh and what 25 years of working in hospitality taught me was that as
annoyed as I ever may be by rules, uh a great many rules are made for a reason. I'll give you an example. everyone freaking out about a ha virus. As someone who has conducted
uh source tracking of material for the purposes of identifying when someone became sick with a food born illness. My guess on the hantovirus outbreak is the following.
Dry food storage in Argentina has been infested with rats for an exceptionally long time. a significant number of food that was on that cruise ship was already contaminated because what it requires for that specific virus to go from animal uh uh
uh transmission to humanto human transmission is prolonged exposure of feces and urine from rodents. Okay. So how that happens in in humans is food food sources are contaminated. I'm I'm
my understanding of how this story developed for the this hivirus outbreak specifically. It seems very obvious to me as someone who's worked uh I've had a job in the past where my job was to review the FDA food code and update training for hospitality workers based
on the FDA updates that come uh in theory every three years. U uh we are going backwards fast right now in our current uh state. I'll tell you this. So, I just want to say that I have a background of being someone who uh who is
suspicious of almost every single rule ever created. Okay? But I'm telling you that what I've learned in life is that regulations save lives every single day. And so uh
in that vein, I'll just say that uh that the the fear of regulation is uh is misplaced. I'm far more afraid of a unregulated food store, uh where rodents would have access.
>> Thank you very much. Um just point of clarification, Miss White back there, uh for the good and welfare theme, it's in our charter. um the process uh which our charter is like our constitution right we have our code and we have our charter the the processes in the charter um
which follows Robert rules so we can't change that but what we can change is the three minutes we can do that by resolution so the three minutes we can change to five or whatever we can do that but as far as a process of you know you guys we close it you guys speak then
it comes back to us and things like that that process we can't change but the amount of time that we give you to speak we can change via resolution so I Just got that. All right, just let you know. Um, any last comments or questions before I ask for a motion? We're good. All right. All right. Uh, do we have a motion to approve um, Attorney Gail, I
believe you have the roll call sheet, right, with the voting sheet. Okay. >> Take that. Yes, sir. >> Yes. So, do we have a motion to approve uh, the resolution for the historic preservation board, Albert Historic Pres? >> I'll move it. Move it. Count. Moved by
Council Person. Second. >> Second. Second by Vice Mayor Martin. Attorney yellow, if you would please do the roll call. >> Yes, sir. >> I'm just getting down the sponsorship. One moment. >> No problem. >> By the way, Clerk Jacobe just texted me
and said hello to everybody. >> Said what? >> She just text me. >> She's at her event. She Well, she's at her event. She had a lot to do today. Um, you know, personally, something very important to do. Um but she's like uh kind of tuning in on the uh on the on the Zoom the virtual meeting. So she
said >> all right in in favor of the resolution we'll begin with council person Ward. >> That was EA and uh council person. >> Yes. >> Council person winners.
>> Um >> sorry I couldn't hear you. Yes, >> Vice Mayor Morton. >> Yes, >> Mayor. >> Yes. >> 5 Z. >> Thank you. I appreciate that you guys. Congratulations. Congratulations to the to Alert and and Miss Lucio. I really
appreciate you, Madam Chair. Um, next is the village manager report. Mad man, Mr. Manager, do you have any reports or >> Can you find a microphone for us, please? Very quick agreement.
>> Your microphone on. >> Can you hear me now? >> The um Fraternal Order of Police um agreed to our terms. They accepted an
increase of 5% on on their budget, on their salaries. Um it was unanimously approved. Um it was a a wonderful experience. Everyone understood exactly the kind of difficulties that we are
going through. Um and everyone agrees. So um I want to thank you. I thank them and I want to thank Harry for being um my savior in terms of um doing the uh
the calculations etc. and everyone else, all of the uh administration of the police department, they were all um supportive of what we are trying to do and uh we are looking forward to next year being a little better, but you
know, for now we we have come to an agreement that we are pretty happy with. >> Manager Roseman, uh this is um much more phenomenal, I think. um than people realize this is three years in the
making. This we uh started with a different organization in negotiations and then um uh and then landed with the FOP and then um uh accomplishing this uh gives our uh police force uh confidence and a boost of morale to know what they
can expect day after day coming in here. um what they were asking for was not unreasonable and I'm exceptionally satisfied that we were able to to get to u a conclusion on that because it um it was really uh a sticking point for us
being able to to just um feel confident and stable about what we have going forward. So, this I mean this is a a super super massive uh uh deal and and thank you and the CFOs most sincerely for uh getting getting us across the
finish line. Attorney Geller as well and um uh this is this is big time like it's really big deal that this got done and I just can't thank you enough. So, thank you sincerely. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much you guys. Um you all see my report there. If you have any questions feel free to reach out to me.
Um Attorney Geller, do we have any reports for you? >> The only thing I'll report mayor is that uh we are we've got some hearings finally coming up on the Scott Cobra case oh excuse me his mom against the village so that's been dormant for a
while other than that um nobody sued us lately we like that >> thank you very much appreciate that do I have a motion to adjourn that >> I have a quick question >> go ahead >> uh last year before or during budget season we actually had a vote that we're going to start earlier talking about the
budget Do you remember when that was supposed to take place? >> Oh, you're asking me? >> Yeah, we I think we voted on it. Yeah, council person remembers too. >> Um, no, I can go back and look at the minutes.
>> Okay. >> I think we were supposed to start in May or June. Uh, start talking about budget items so we're not last minute on October. >> Yeah. again again which we can but again always remember you all that Elpert our
budget being small if we start too early what you see there in June is not going to be what you see in August or September because our budget's so small things fluctuate that much so if you look at something in May or June and you say
okay this is this this is this this is remember the fiscal year doesn't end until or until the end of September October 1 starts the new fiscal year so up until the last day of September. We're in the current budget year. So, if you start to say, I'm going to budget for the next fiscal year in May.
Now, if we were North Miami Beach with a budget of, you know,und I think they have $180 something million. I know Sunny Als Beach is like $230 million. Um, even our our our sister, you know, city up north to the north of us, Miami Shores, I believe they're it's a even
number. It's either 48 or 46 million. So, you know, if we have that and we have that cushion, yes, then you can start to budget early because then you can say, well, if if something happens here, you guys, we haven't even gone through hurricane season yet. You think as a mayor, I'm I'm going crazy thinking
about, you know, what we have left over in our budget for if we get hit by a hurricane or a tough storm. So, in a place like Elal is more difficult you all because we don't have that cushion of a large budget. So what you see in May and June and July is not going to be
what you see in September. So we just have to be careful about that because what could happen I'm not I'm not against starting early but what could happen is you know what I don't want to happen is we start we we start and we say in June hey everybody this is what we have and then something happens
at the end of August and people are like but what happened to this? You guys said you had this. So we just have to be careful about that so that everybody kind of understands and you know the transparency around what we exactly have in Alberta. How we
have a $4 million budget which is you know by far the smallest budget in Alberta. I mean in Miami date county out of the 34 municipalities right remember Medley may be a smaller community by population but Medley is all commercial.
So I mean Medley has a a strong mayor. The mayor in Medley gets paid like 200 something million two two 200 something thousand a year $25,000 I think Medley gets the mayor of Medley gets paid right so Biscane Park is also small but Biscane Park has the highest millage
rate in the county rate is like 9.8 or 9.6 six, right? And they do that to give themselves a little bit of cushion, a little bit of leeway. So, so yeah, we're going to get it on um as soon as possible, but we really want to make
sure that we have everything as down to the dollar that we possibly can have so that we give you guys the most current information. Um, I do just want to after all that, I do just want to echo
Council Person Wy's concern on this because of the way that the budget for this fiscal year was passed. It was passed in a way that this year's budget was going to be redressed around the midyear, which was
already a couple months ago. And so uh and so for that reason it was established that the council needed to be ahead on the next budget review as opposed to behind. And so to council
person Winter's point, October is going to be here unbelievably uh rapidly. Um and this council should be now regardless of how things will shake out, we should be turning our focus to the
budget at this time. >> Absolutely. So, for example, the the uh the police um CBA that kicks in when >> the uh the budget is is um you know like all the budgets October
1st >> it kick but but that kicks in October 1st coming up or that has kicked in already retroactively >> that has kicked in already retroactively. >> That's my perfect example. things come up in our budget that we really need to keep an eye on. You see what I mean?
Like things like that come up in our budget, we still have and like I said, just because it's it's keeping me up at night, we have to try to find a way to set aside some stuff for flooding, you know, for hurricane um you know,
disaster relief or even hard storm disaster relief. You guys, we don't need a hurricane. If we have hard rains, the residents that are, you know, Shore Forest is a little bit higher, the residents once you go west of uh Northeast Second and then west of North
Miami Avenue, >> especially the residents that are on the river over there, west of North Miami Avenue, they all get flooded out, >> right? It's horrible. So, I I I don't disagree with both of you, but I'm just saying that we need to do this. Once we do this, we need to make sure that we're
transparent to the residents and really give them this is what it is right now. This is what we're looking forward to, but this possibly could change if things change um throughout the summer or anything that comes up like the the the CBA for the police uh contract that just
came in that hits and just hit and it's retroactive, >> but it was also in built into the budget already. Is that correct? >> That is correct. >> So, we didn't go over the last year's budget when we did the police. But thing about it is when with for the police budget and for that to be retroactive until you guys decided and agreed on the
percentage, how do we know what the percentage is going to be? Right? So those type of things are just things you have to kind of just keep in mind. That's all as we move forward. Um I had a motion to adjourn by council person Ward. Do I have a second?
>> I'll second. We have a second by council person. All say I. >> I. I. >> All oppose say nay. Hearing none. The regular council meeting for Tuesday, May 26, 2026 is adjourned at what is this? It is 9:46 p.m. Thank you everybody.
Good job everyone.