Are we ready, Madam Clerk? You're ready. All right. Ready. Good evening everyone and welcome. I'd like to call the city of Homestead special call city council meeting to order. Today is Tuesday, May 13, 2025, and it is now
5:01 p.m. Call a roll, please, Madam Clerk. Councilman Ross, here. Councilman Cannibal. Councilwoman Bailey, here. Councilwoman Avula here. Councilman Davis here. Vice Mayor Fletcher here. Mayor Lawson here.
All right, our first item tonight. I know Cannibal is in the building and he'll be back shortly. Our first item of business tonight is the first reading of car number 456, a storm water utility rate increase under tab 1. Mr. Pearl. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Uh,
tab one is the first reading of an ordinance of the city council of the city of Homestead, Florida, amending section 22-55 fees of chapter 22, public improvements of the city Homestead code of ordinances, amending the city storm water utility fee, providing for collection of such fees on the tax bill,
providing for severability, providing for conflicts, providing for inclusion in the code, and providing for an effective date. Thank you, sir. Mr. Manager, as I know, notices have already gone out specific to to this item. I think I received mine yesterday and I
understand that the clerk's office has received more than a few phone calls about this. If we could go ahead and put the the background and staff report on the record for this item on first reading. Yes. Uh good afternoon, mayor and council.
Um the this item has to do with adjustment of the current storm water utility rates are payable in the city through your annual tax rule. which is the tax bill. The continued growth of the city and within the city has ne
necessitated an increased investment in the maintenance of an improvement of eastern water infrastructure. The city has not done any adjustment of the fees for about 17 years and uh as a result an adjustment to the fee is necessary to
ensure adequate funding for necessary maintenance and enhancements. The city proposes to increase the stormwater utility fee from $3.37 a month to $6 a month. Uh which is
for each equivalent residential unit. What that means is that if you're if you have at least 2,000 square footage of property footprint, what you pay in a month is going to be $6. If it's more than that, it's going to be prorated.
Uh the increase is an increase from $4044 per year to $72 per year per each equivalent residential unit. We did an in-house analysis and a study and the calculation shows that what is needed is
a minimum of $92. However, we took a decision to cap it at what the county currently charges county residents, which is at $72 per each equivalent residential units. This again is for strictly residential properties. for
non-residential developed properties is calculated differently for each improvers area and each commercial property is required to pay a minimum of two equivalent residential units which amounts to $144 a year. So this is
needed for us to be able to keep track and be able to be consistent in the maintenance of our storm water utilities because which are the drainage systems, the outfalls and uh streets infrastructure. In a nutshell, what this
is this is what we are intending to do keeping in mind that this adjustment has never been done in close to 17 years. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Just to confirm for the record what I think I heard it's been 17 years since there's been any
increase. That's correct. And is it correct to say that built into permit fees and so forth for all of these new homes that have been built over the last 17 years? Um
those homes have been paying to the new homes pay toward the initial system that's necessary. But this is a citywide assessment for ongoing maintenance, repairs, and any enhancements that that
need to be be done otherwise. Yes. Uh just for the record, the city also owns it owns what we call the national pollutant discharge elimination system which by law requires us to ensure that we don't discharge affluent
dairy and contaminated water into the groundwater or any of the outside body of water surface waters because you have that permit. You are required to maintain your system at a certain level. What is that level? You must clean the entire system for at least once every
five years. But most cities like city of Homestead will do is to ensure that we clean our system more than once every 5 years. And I think currently we're at 70% stage in the past few months because of the hurricane is about to start and
we're hoping to strike 100% before then. Some certain locations have been cleaned multiple times because they have a history of uh flooding or a history of a blockage of this filtration system. Okay. Council, any questions, comments?
Counciloman Avala. Uh thank you, mayor. I would um like to notate a location where I did see flooding happening yesterday if we can take a look at it. Uh it's off of um Kingman, no Farm Life School Road and
Campbell Drive right there where the where the gas station is. I noticed some flooding there. And then one other location, but it's it's recent. I hadn't seen that happening um in years prior. So, I'd like to make sure we address that. And I will be supporting this item uh tonight. It's one thing to change
your fees and raise uh fees without action. and this administration has been very active and we've been um pouring ourselves into infrastructure improvements and so we can't do that without these um corrective actions. So, thank you um for explaining everything and thank you for looking into those
locations. Thank you, Councilwoman. Who's next? Vice Mayor Fletcher. Just quickly understanding as well, this will automatically be an increase next year when the CPI goes up. So, this is going to continue to possibly raise a little bit or or slightly slightly adjust
itself. Um, are there any other outstanding fees from the city that we need to look at because I know a lot of them have not been touched in many years, but you know, we need to start looking at these because it costs to do business and we need to make sure we're covering those costs. So, I don't need
an answer tonight, but uh something to to provide us all in the future. We need to get get ahead of this one. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor, Council Davis, Council Cannibal, Councilman Roth, Council Bailey. All right, so let me
open the public hearing and ask if there's anyone online or in the audience wishing to speak on this matter. No one online. No one in the audience. With that, then I will close the public hearing and entertain a
motion for approval on first reading. Moved by Councilman Cannibal, seconded by Vice Mayor Fletcher. Uh, let's have a roll call. Councilman Cannibal. Yes. Councilman Davis, yes. Councilman Roth, yes. Councilwoman
Bailey, yes. Councilwoman Abul, yes. Vice Mayor Fletcher, yes. Mayor Losner, yes. The motion carries. All right. And the next item is tab two, which is car number 4587. This is a career source summer youth employment program. Mr. Pearl.
Yes, Mr. Mayor. Tab two is a resolution of the city council of the city of Homestead, Florida, approving the summer youth employment program funding agreement between the city of Homestead and the South Florida Workforce Investment Board, DBA Career Source, South Florida, authorizing the city manager to execute the agreement,
authorizing the city manager to expend budgeted funds, and providing for an effective date. Thank you, sir. Uh, Mr. Manager, I know we've all been briefed. Is there anything you would like to add with respect to uh to this matter for the public?
Yes. Uh it's important to note that the executive director of the South Florida Workforce Investment Board, which does business at Career Source, is in the room, Mr. Rick Beasley, if you want to introduce yourself and uh make a quick
remarks. And thank you for bringing the program back to the city of Homestead after a one-year hiatus. Thank you, sir. Thank you and welcome. I don't think it's on. All right, there we go. Again, Mr.
Mayor, to our to our city council, thank you again for allowing us to be here uh to the city manager. Uh I will share with you all our executive board uh and board members have approved our match of $50,000 to host a summer employment program down here. Something similar that we've done for years. And again,
our goal is to ensure that the youth here have an opportunity for career pathways. And so, uh, here's a way for us to be able to provide assistance. Uh, I would share that the number of folks, the youth that participated, I think 20,23, majority of them were receiving free and reduced lunch or receiving a
temporary assistance for needed families. And so, again, we're going to serve the hard to serve, but ensure those students have an opportunity for employment. Very good. Appreciate it. Any questions or comments from council? Councilman Davis? I I'm just delighted at your return because these these things are so
important and the greater mission of career source helping people get jobs and for quite some time you know we'd have to go north into Cutler Ridge kind of area um uh and when you're out of a job you don't have money for gas to be doing that I'm so delighted that you're
coming back it's such an important function in our community thank you very much appreciate it city I would share with you this is only for the residents of Homestead only for the residents of Homestead it. Uh but I would encourage you that uh as much as you increase, we'll match that. Just hinting for next
year. So if you increase, we increase. Okay. Heard. Heard loud and clear. Very good. Appreciate it. Council, any further questions or comments? Councilwoman Bailey. Thank you, Mayor. Also very very happy and excited about this program. I just wanted to put it on the record for staff. I know that a lot
of our residents look on the city of Homestead's website for employment opportunities. So, just to make sure that we do the best we can to make sure we're linking our residents over to uh be able to take advantage of your program. Well, let me share with you. We're going to have it on if it's to the
city manager, we're going to have it on your website. Super. So, it links there so they can go directly to your website, but it's a they will apply and we'll get the information. It will be a um random selection process. And so, again, all the uh residents here can go to your
your website or ours, but they'll be able to get access to the program. Perfect. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Councilwoman. All right, let me open the public hearing. Is there anyone online? Anyone in the audience wishing to speak on this matter? So, I'll close the
public hearing and ask for a motion to approve. Moved by Councilwoman Bailey, second by Councilwoman Avala. Okay. And this requires a roll call vote. Councilman Davis, yes. Councilman Cannibal, yes. Councilman Roth, yes.
Councilwoman Bailey, yes. Councilwoman Avio, yes. Vice Mayor Fletcher, yes. Mayor Losner, yes. The motion carries. Thank you. Is there any further business for the special call agenda? Mr. Manager? None. Mr. Attorney, with that,
do we have a motion to adjourn? Moved and seconded. All in favor? I. We will convene the committee of the whole meeting in just a moment as soon as the clerk signals they are ready to uh switch over and begin recording the uh the committee of the whole this evening.
Thank you. All right. Good evening everyone and welcome. I'd like to call the city of Homestead Committee of the whole meeting to order. Today is Tuesday, May 13, 2025, and it is now 5:14 p.m. Can we have a roll call, please, Madam Clerk?
Councilwoman Avula, yes. Councilwoman Bailey, Councilman Davis, Councilman Cannibal, here. Councilman Roth, Vice Mayor Fletcher, yes. Mayor Lawson, I'm here.
One of those days already, right? All right. So, are there any additions, deletions, or deferrals to the agenda? None, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.
Um, next item is a uh no presentations. Item four showing as a presentation. Is that correct? Okay. All right. So, we have before us on tab one the the minutes of the April 8th cow meeting. We have a
motion to approve. Moved and second. Moved by Counciloman Bailey. Second by Councilman Cannibal. All in favor? Any opposed? Our next item, tab two, is a motion to place car number 4593 on the council agenda, the Wit Cop Park
Playground. Do we have any objections to waving the staff report? All right. Do we have any final questions or comments from council? Hearing none. Go. Counciloman
Aawa. Thank you. I did have a question during our briefing regarding the shade um the shade structures. Was there any extra information you want to provide on Could you say that again? Shade structures. Yeah, during briefing we had talked about the shade um that was going
to be available for the playground and whether or not we could look at uh independent shades versus shades built into the playground. Did we was that explored? Is there any extra information on that? Yeah, we can get that information before the council meeting. Thank you. Very good. All right. Any
questions or comments from council? All right. So, a motion to place this uh item on the council agenda. It's been moved by Avala, seconded by Councilwoman Bailey. All in favor? Any opposed?
Okay. Next item is tab three. This a motion to place car number 4558 on the council agenda. ITB number 202510. This is an event rental equipment, inflatables, rides, and characters um on an as needed basis as I
understand. Is that correct? This is just That's correct. a a vendor that's uh in line to provide uh those kind of services to the city. Is there any objection to waving the staff report? Right. Do we have any questions or comments from
council? Uh let me open the public hearing. Is there anyone online or present wishing to speak on this? Seeing none, has been moved by Councilman Cannibal, second by Councilman Davis.
All in favor? Any opposed? Next item is tab four. This is a motion to place car number 4589 on the council agenda. Public outreach initiative for a VA hospital in Homestead. Uh Councilman Davis, would you like to give us a thumbnail sketch
of uh this item? Yes, sir. Uh Mr. Mayor, thank you. And and I I I just want to tell our our our city council and our and our our our staff here how humbled I am to see how the the real support for
our veteran community is is actioned with within each of us. Uh we all hear the statistics about veteran suicide and vet veteran need for healthcare, but very few communities jump in with both feet like Homestead is doing. Um we are
in the process. We've already talked with u uh Congressman Jimenez as many of you are aware. He is he is allin on this effort. Uh the mayor and and city manager and together as a whole we've we've blocked uh certain acreage for uh
for a VA facility which again is a a pretty unique thing within the within municipalities of our size. Uh but what we're trying to do is is uh continue pushing for this uh VA facility here in Homestead and it'll be an anchor for
veterans. Uh we've all heard the story of veterans in the Keys that have to go to downtown. I have to go to downtown to use the VA hospital. Um it's impossible to use it if you're working. Uh you can't be taking all those days off to go all the way downtown because it takes it
takes essentially all day. So what we're doing here is initiating a public outreach and to get public support. Now we're getting that energy of our community together to say this is more than just a great idea of the city council uh you know and and the
leadership. We want this thing. And what we're in the process of doing is having a a letterw writing campaign. They're being printed up. We're going to initiate a letterw writing campaign. There's other things we can do as well to bring uh highlight to this need and
highlight to the um uh to the uh uh appropriateness of this facility. A lot of times people think, "Oh, it's grinding in the federal government. It's just going to grind to a halt." It grinds to a halt if people like us don't continue saying, "Listen to us. Listen
to Homestead. We want this thing." And that's what we're doing today. And I very much thank uh the city manager and the mayor for for uh supporting this, the council. It is such an important item and I want to thank you for this. And now you've been you've been drafted,
okay, as we move forward. You all been drafted and we're going to move forward with this public relations piece to give awareness to the need and to give awareness to Washington that this is what we want. This is what we need in our community. Thank you.
Thank you. Anything further, councilman? I I support this 100%. Thank you for taking the lead on. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor Fletcher. Yes. And uh also we'll be in full support, but we need to also look at thinking about a
change.org petition uh as well. Something else to think about. We've had some very good success with those in the past. So, absolutely. Whatever it takes. Absolutely. Whatever it takes. Okay. So, let me open the public hearing and see if there's any comment. Anyone online?
Anyone in the audience? We'll close the public hearing and ask for a motion to approve this item. Councilman Davis moved. Second by Councilwoman Avala. Okay. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Next item is tab five. And this is a motion
to place car number 3725 on the council agenda. the purchase of McMmin electrical substation equipment wildlife covers 685 Northeast 6th Avenue. I think that's uh self-explanatory. I think uh
in the heat of the summer in July a couple years ago, it was determined that wildlife intrusion caused a pretty gruesome and lengthy outage and that's just part of being in the business. So, any further questions or comments from council?
We open the public hearing. Is there anyone online or in the audience wishing to speak on the purchase of uh wildlife covers for our electrical substation? I'll close the public hearing and ask for a motion to approve. Moved by Vice Mayor, second by
Councilwoman Bailey. All in favor? Any opposed? Next item is tab six. Motion to place car number 4571 on the council agenda to adopt the city of Homestead 2025 watershed master plan. Is there any
objection to waving the staff report? Any final questions or comments from council? We open the public hearing. Is there anyone online or in the audience wishing to speak on this matter? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing and ask for a motion to
approve. Moved by Councilman Avala, seconded by Vice Mayor Fletcher. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay, moving right along. Next item is a discussion item shown as a
discussion item. Tab 7, car number 4606, proposed ballot language for uh proposed charter amendments to be contained on the November 2025 uh ballot. Would anyone like to kick off
the discussion on either of these two items? Counciloman Bailey. Thank you, mayor. Um I just had one quick first question. Um maybe the clerk has this information. Do we have a ballpark of how much that increase would be for the runoff
piece? Any idea for the runoff with the special election? Well, we always have runoff, right? But if if this So this new amendment would include a runoff.
So it will piggy back off of the general election, the cost of the general election. So it's not going to be a standalone. It was my understanding that if it fell when we were not holding a regular election, then it would be either a
winner or take all or this amendment would have us incur a runoff if there's more than two candidates. We always try to, you know, we hope the timing is always piggybacking on not necessarily our regular election,
but a county or state election in an even year. It could even be in a March presidential primary. Generally speaking, the time frames are built in that you're you're probably going to hit one of those milestones in a given a given year. um
you know ideally um it's it's in conjunction with ours but uh you know there there would be if if it didn't fall with any of those time frames there would be a a separate election. Now I
think Mr. your correct jump if I'm if wrong. I know that some communities for those types of situations call for mailin ballots only which could you know and and I think can't we do that on a case-bycase basis
depending upon the timing let's say in in an even year we found ourselves or in early in the early portion of an oddnumbered year we found ourselves having to have a truly standalone
election for that seat. Do we have the discretion to reduce cost by calling for a mail-in election? I think that would I think that is a possibility. What I would
suggest that if you want to reserve that right that we tweak this a little bit and so that the special the procedures for holding the special election can be implemented by ordinance so that we can lay out the circumstances. I don't think it's appropriate to lay all of that out in the charter, but we could by
ordinance lay out procedures for a special election and the determination of how that would be held if that's the direction that the council wants to go. I I think that's a good thought. I mean, hopefully we will be able to piggyback that on regularly scheduled elections whenever they are, but there may be uh
solutions available to us to to reduce that cost. And just sorry really quick just to clarify then whoever receives a mail in ballot would be anyone who has registered to vote within the city or anybody who has signed up for a mail in
ballot in a special election in like this. I think we we provide for mail and ballots to all registered voters. Okay. I would just like to make sure that then that is the case. That' be a tough campaign to run when everybody who's registered gets a
ballot. That's a tough uh again I think that that ability is going to be I think on a by ordinance that we'll look at later uh a case by depending upon the timing right that you know and the chances of it falling without that that's right
that's right and we do have some pretty long time frames there that are built in to hit on you know whatever election it could even be an an August county commi piggybacked on an August county commission case. So, you know, there is
a lot of leeway there. Those were really my my two questions for the rest I don't have an issue with either. Councilman Davis, uh and and and for our discussion, as I was as I was reading the the terminology, I felt that the
second one uh the second uh paragraph was not quite accurate. And the reason I'm bringing it up is the the purpose of this is not to increase the mayoral term, but it's to align the mayoral term with the city council. And I and I think
that that um second paragraph should and I know there's a limitation in the number of words that can be used, but I think we could we could put in there that the um the uh charter be increased to align the mayor's term with the city
council's term. And I think that would be a more accurate way to say it. So it is more of a housekeeping in in in reality. And Mr. Attorney, that would fall within the the range and explanation. Yeah, I I think that's fine
as long depending on how we were to what I would suggest if you want to do that is if you were to look at the second piece of the first question, I would change the closing language and frame it like this. Shall the charter be amended to increase the
consecutive number of years that an individual may serve as mayor from eight years to 12 years to align with council member term limits instead of while leaving the remaining term limits unchanged. Okay. So I would reframe the question that way. Fine with me. This
sounds like excellent solution. Yeah. So we're all we've got direction to do that as as well as address the issues that council me brought up. Take a look. Um, so that'll be done the I'll the mo the resolution that
you'll consider on the 28th will have the revised language in it. Okay. Okay. All right. So, this is just a discussion item tonight to to tweak these have final tweaking for an up or down vote on
each of these questions separately to be placed on the ballot will come before us at the end of uh end of this month. Right. I think the 28th was a regular regular council meeting. So, is there anything else that you need for We moved
it to the 28th. No, sir. That's fine. Thank you. Any further com or Vice Mayor Fletcher? Nothing specific on this, but uh charter in general, how often are we supposed to have a charter review committee and when was the last one? I can't remember off
hand. We it's every five and we did something two years ago. Okay. I I couldn't recall last time we did it that met in three years ago. 21 21 21 met in 21.
Yes. So we're getting close. So we're getting close and you know a project as as time goes on. Yes. Right. Councilman. Okay, Mr. Manager, do you have an additional
item of business for us tonight? Additional Oh, uh, mayor and council. I had last Friday shared a letter that I received from a group called uh VSGS Facilities
LLC regarding a proposal so to speak which actually is the proper word to use is a letter of in interest to redevelop the Homestead Sports Complex which we call the Homestead Regional Park. he had some preliminary
information and uh while asking us to indicate whether we're interested in exploring the potential partnership. So I'm asking council to kind of guide us, provide guidance and direction whether we should actually respond to this
letter of interest and in exploring further what's the intended purpose and proposal public interest as well as the need for further additional presentation to council from them. What is the interest of council? Should the
administration proceed in exploring this potential partnership and uh getting them in for additional discussion, council, bring it on. Bring it on where I would love to see um where they'd like to take this and I'm very excited about the
opportunity. Thank you for bringing it to us. Thank you, Councilwoman. Thank you, mayor. Definitely also very excited. The opportunities for our youth to be scouted out obviously is another big piece. Uh my only concern is that we try to get the time limit as early as
possible just because even though I am not on the east side, I feel like I know that a lot of the residents on the east side are waiting for this park. Um not that it's a time that's later than the majority of the residents want to visit. So whatever we can do and in pushing
that time down a little would be great. Thank you, Councilman Roth. Vice Mayor Fletcher. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So if uh we are able to bring when would be the soonest available for these folks to come and provide us with an update or
their proposed plan. I think I can aim to see if we can bring them here on the 28th of May because they had indicated that time is of the essence. They potentially going to be receiving franchise from FIFA. So they want to see if they can do something in Homestead by
FIFA World Cup 26. So, it' be a good idea to kind of facilitate it on the 28th of May and see where we go from there. Okay, good. Perfect. Announcement cannibal. What are we waiting for? What are we waiting for?
Ditto. Um so just now to cl to clarify um at the 28th if we at such time as we we receive their presentation I'm going to assume at that point we'll get the legal input as to
the procedure we take for any notification procurement etc that you know we're all going to recognize that but for the time being we'll we'll stick a pin in it and ask them to to be here on the uh as the first item,
the upfront item on the uh the agenda that night. How's the agenda looking that night? Are we jam-packed with with land use? It's a little bit uh busy, but I think we can accommodate this. Maybe by 2024 25 standards, but not 19 to 23
standards. I think we can uh yeah, I think we can accommodate them. Um, we'll work with them, myself and the city attorney, see where we can land in terms of a presentation on the 28th. Very good. Okay. Anything further from council for councilwoman Bailey? One
quick thing, Mayor. Thank you. Oh, you're not done. No. So, thank you council and mayor for engaging with us last Friday on the leadership. I know that the vice mayor was uh unfortunately there was a mixup in the calendar so he wasn't able to
make it. Uh also I believe Kasuman Roth was out of town and also tomorrow the rest of the administration we have a similar exercise here at city hall and also just as a FYI the summer
camp registration that we initiated on May 1st is going to be we already have capacity for 60 residents and non-residents as of today we have 50
registrations from city of homestead residents pending only 10 openings and uh on Friday the 15th of May we're going to open it to the public in addition to city residents but I anticipate that the entire slot will be taken over by the
entire city residents and uh the chrome marketplace we had put it out for another round of solicitation as of date there has not been any response and uh we find that a little
concerning. I know that this council had passed a resolution urging the Miami date county to hold a line on fluoridation which is the addition of fluoresing water. That exercise has been preempted by state law. So Florida legislature passed a new bill that
prohibits addition of fluorides in water effective July 1st. Now the inventory stock that we have for our water treatment plants will be exhausted on May 20th. So we are cut between whether we
should discontin prior to July 1st or should we hold the line and keep on adding it. So that's a legal question. Uh the challenge we have is that if we place a new procurement order, we might have too much in stock when it goes out
of uh current when it becomes prohibited on July 1st. So that's a question we seek legal guidance and uh happy to report that on May 27th the program which is flow
Florida licensing on wheels will be here in the city for granting uh DMV to give out driver's licenses to our city residents. I think my colleague may want to especiate some more on the strategic planning. It's going to be here at city
hall or at Miami College. It'll be at Miami date college. Okay, that's correct. So, that's what I have and also happy to report through the chief of police that the 617 fire incident along
Cad Sand Road and US1 has been 100% contained as of today. That's all I have. Thank you. Good. Thank you, Councilwoman Bailey, and then Vice Mayor Fletcher. Thank you, Mayor. Oh, first of all, real quick, I'm so incredibly disappointed in that
fluoride bill. Yeah, so disappointed. Um, please, if we need to make half of a purchase of what we usually do, let's continue it as a city as long as we can, please, until July 1st. Anyway, on a happier note, um the
24th is ArtWalk, and I was wondering if I had your blessing. Um, we had an organization reach out that would paint the stalls at Harris Field in both bathrooms. So, um, we wanted to to do it
before before Artw walk so that our guests could see a colorful art in public restroom places. We were joking about art in public restroom places. Um, but yes, if uh I know it's not the typical way to go uh to go through this,
um, but it was a a recent offer that the that ArtWalk presents received and I thought it would be a wonderful addition to our Harris Park um restrooms. Any objections? Well, I just proceed. Well,
it the bathrooms by the pavilion, but pro procedurally I is this analogous to when we allowed um the charter school over here on the highway to designate JD Red Park as
their home field. And with that, I know is uh Pedro here where they did some painting and you know did the did some specialized team logos and colors. Would would that be kind of a
similar process here as a volunteer project? So, you know, so I guess so long as it passes muster with parks and whatever needs to happen, well, that implicit in all of that risk management and parks and Mr.
Mayor, I think from what I understand, this is more like a community beautifification project, right? Public space which is done everywhere. Okay. No objection. Vice Mayor Fletcher. Yes. Thank you. going to I'm going to try to impose my
will here, but uh since I was unable to make the strategic plan meeting last Friday, would I be invited to swing by and spend some time with you and your staff tomorrow? Mr. Vice Mayor, you are welcome every day 247. Thank you very much. That's what he's obligated to
say. That it vice mayor, council woman. Thank you, mayor. I wanted to ask if there was a possibility to extend the summer camp. um date maybe just one more weekend for public for city only. Is there a really is it a really tight
timeline or can we just No, we we will explore that possibility. We'll report back to you. Thank you, Mr. Manager. I just got an update that all 60 slots were actually filled today. So, I I had I had already checked with
the parks director to see some wiggle room because I know there will be last minute requests from city residents whether we have the ability to accommodate additional requests from city residents not outsiders well beyond the 60 slots we
have in place and he's looking into that huh there's a total of 90 we're going to we're going to look into that 96 slots there's a total of 66 available all across the board okay okay um all right just wanted to give some feedback about the strategic planning meeting I thought
it was um very um very productive. I'm already claiming that we are the capital of South Dade. So, you know, hop on board and help me. I already told that was my phrase. Yeah. I told someone from the county's office, I said, "Why don't we open up a county office in the capital of South Dade so that you don't
have to commute because they're all going back to work, too." So, um hopefully that'll I'm putting it out into the universe and we can all echo it. Thank you, Counc. Thank you. Uh, two things. The fluoride issue. Do we actually have to
notify the public that we're removing that from their drinking water? So, this is state law. So, we're obligated to comply with state statute. So, I guess it's a public relations uh good faith effort to let
the public know that the city historically had added fluores to water. However, state statue now prohibits us from doing so. So, we don't have any objection to sending out uh some public press release. I just think it's I mean
it's important for them to know as well. I mean, maybe they changed some habits at home. I don't know. Um but I think and I agree with Bailey. If we can buy a half a order, whatever we got to buy to supply it through the end of June, um at
least let's give them that opportunity. And the other thing that um I wanted to ask about was the um marketplace. You were disappointed in what the um outcome of that RFP
was. We have a very substantial investment in that building. So we need to figure out what we can do to um excite someone about that property. Um, will we be be putting it back out
for another RFP? Would it be something that we need to change the marketing of that on? I mean, we we we failed to allow the Suskin Group to come in and do the food court there. So, I think um we got to find something to put in there. I mean,
that's a that's over almost nearly a $5 million investment by the city and it's just sitting there doing nothing. There are some options that I kind of been muing over perhaps look into
potentially letting it out on a peace meal instead of having one vendor take the entire space perhaps begin to look into sectional lease area. If you look at uh the famous uh food place in downtown Miami on
Flaggler, there are individual lease holders or rental spaces that were given out. They had an umbrella lease then they have individual leases. So you're not going to get somebody which I think is one of the biggest challenge we have here. The
square footage is too much for some of the folks. And I think I may have mentioned to one or two of you they have chef on the lawn. chef on the run. You are staying in a very limited space. Perhaps you can take a little piece of the property. It might require
some level of investment from the CDC in order to create some kind of uh internal FFN as well as uh remodeling to create individual units for now. Whenever we find somebody that is interested in the entire space, we can discuss an umbrella
list. But we need to activate the location real quick. Yeah, I think and you know when you drive by it, you don't realize it's the entire space either. Um maybe if we did just a modification of the of the front and maybe open that up
and put some windows in there on our own so it you can see that space and it makes it more attractive because if if an end user's got to do all that work to make it more attractive, Yeah. it it just it it it puts up obstacles as far as developing that property. So, um
maybe we go look at that. If if it's a restaurant that goes in there, we already know that the infrastructure doesn't support that. We got to put grease traps and those types of things. And I think previously we made some monies available
for that specific area to to help with the construction of grease traps in order for a business to come in without that heavy load of an expense to invest in a grease trap because we all know I don't know if we all know but you know the success in restaurants is is very
small percentage wise when it comes to mom and pop facilities and um we look at the one that's trying to open now with Saki Pasi to um Sakaz and it's taken them a long time to get open. So I just
I think if we if we look at that co corridor um we have to get more flexible with with the the wants that we have for that that area. I mean, we took away the good the bad stuff, right? We don't want more uh clinics and, you know, things
down in those areas. But I think if if we really want to attract uh legitimate, you know, businesses to Chrome in the downtown Chrome area, we have to have it's going to be a sacrifice on the city's part for the
quality of life that some people are asking for in the city. We talked about a little bit before the meeting about the outpouring of the residents, you know, wanting entertainment, wanting things for their kids to do in this
city. Um, I mean, we're limited on space when it comes to the soccer fields and we're working on some of those those things, but it's it's beyond soccer and athletics. It's it's other things that they're looking for as well. Um, vice mayor brought up a good one. You know,
we go out there and recruit. He wasn't on the the planning meeting that we had or the the workshop we had and he said, "Top golf, we need Top Golf on that property." I said, "We talked about Top Golf coming to that property." And then he mentioned Dave and Busters as as one of those types of of
activities. And we talked about the miniature golf, you know, potentially in that area as well. So, um, I think the cry now is as we've grown so much over the last 10-15 years is the
entertainment aspect that is lacking in our city. And I think that's what we really and there's many other issues to work on obviously, but that's one of the things that helps keep our residents in the city of Homestead, spending their money in the city of Homestead and not traveling up the roads to other other
areas to spend their money. So, I think if we can focus on that along with the marketplace place and and and really start to hone in on that. Do we have another meeting scheduled for the city hall uh workshop? because I know when you guys came in there, you were this
this whole thing and we kind of flipped it upside down and said, "Uh, no, we don't we're not so sure that's what we want there." So, so we're doing some kind of internal reviews uh inclusive of economic analysis that was requested and also reaching out to hotels for
potential interest and there was a promise that we'll come back for another sec second layer of workshopping the concept. So we're waiting once the CRA director is overseeing the whole process once we're ready we'll schedule a workshop and uh
hopefully the sky will be the limit or the sky will not be the limit depending on the interest that is developed 30 stories how much 80 30 I don't know so so is there an update on Flanigans and how they're progressing as well yes uh
the we've the city attorney already successfully drafted the initial uh draft agreement So, it's under review. I believe we may have uh communicated comments to the attorneys and there will be additional coordination to go on. Correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Attorney,
between the city attorney, which is Jason uh James Weiss as well as the attorney for Flanigan on the land use side of it. But on the general agreement terms, we already coordinated terms already. And I I spoke with uh Flanigan's attorney earlier today. As
soon as he and James come to an agreement on the platting piece, they had two separate approaches. That'll be input into the agreement and we'll be ready to go. Is there anything we can do to expedite some of this stuff? Do we know who's going to do the demolition on the building? Is that going to be our
responsibility? And can we start to RFP that out now or? No. Usually when you do this kind of deal is as is. You come in, you demo it. You don't want to spend public funds when the the developer is going to potentially going to pick it out on it. What's going to happen is
that a successful developer made include that as part of the terms of negotiation. So I would highly recommend that we leave it at that so that we don't incure liability and risk management issues respect to disposals. No, I appreciate that. and just it's just a matter of expediting and trying
to get things moving as quickly as we can um so that at least we bring that to that corner and then maybe that stimulates other development there as well. So that's all. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. Way you said 30 stories, right? Let the record reflect. I said
Councilman Roth is proposing 30 stories. The record cannot reflect what went through my mind about 30 stories. Mayor, may I I wanted to just piggy back on the discussion about the hotels and and you know a pos possible convention
center for that site. Just it's it's graduation season and I heard a principal say that you know there they use the uh the um the rot with the center right there in Cutler Bay. the Moss Center Moss Center and it's maybe a thousand seats, but when they take away
no like 900 seats, but then after staff and and uh whatnot, it's it's probably like 800 seats available for their students. And so they're not able to allow the students have as many tickets as they would like for family to attend graduation. Point is is that there's a
demand for this. The other locations like at uh FIU and M they're charging $13,000 for graduation schools. when you have these are for pri you know charter private schools. The county thankfully has contracts to be able to host their graduations but these are demands that
maybe we could you know satisfy here with something um something to that caliber and uh that's it. Thank you. Okay, you all are covered. Vice mayor spoken. Councilman Davis, Councilman Cannibal. All
right, there's nothing further. And again, I just want to comment on the strategic the follow-up strategic planning session. Very very well done. Very productive. I really think we're we're all honing in on from the
same on the same same issues. So with that, do we have a motion to adjurnn? Moved by second by Bailey. All in favor? Any opposed? or adding to your neighbor's bulk waste pile without permission. This illegal
dumping has many negative effects on your community like health issues from unsanitary conditions, decreasing property values, and using your tax dollars to clean up someone