Good evening everyone and welcome. I'd like to call the Tuesday, February 3rd, City of Homestead special call meeting to order. It is now 5:34 p.m. Um, Madame Clerk, could you please call the role?
>> Councilwoman Ksky >> here. >> Councilman Cannibal >> here. >> Councilman Fletcher >> here. >> Councilwoman Abula >> here. >> Councilman Ross >> here. >> Vice Mayor Bailey >> here. Mayor Lawson, >> mayor. All right. Our first item tonight is the
uh request for a motion to place car number 4914 on the council agenda. Public hearing 2026-07, the Greater Miami Youth for Christ mural consideration. Mr. Pearl. >> Yes. Addendum one is a resolution of the city of Homestead, Florida, granting
approval of a public art mural as requested by Greater Miami Youth for Christ for property located at 1088 West Mauy Drive as legally described in exhibit A and providing for an effective date. >> Thank you. Um, open it up to any council questions or
comments. Vice Mayor, I'm sure you'd like to lead the charge. >> If anyone wants to speak first, I'll say that. >> Any anyone? Okay, you're it. Thank you, mayor. So, there is a brief 45 minute
presentation to just kidding to talk about all the suffering we've done over the last seven years. No, just kidding. I wanted to thank you all for helping to make this vision a realization. We have in the audience
three of the parties that are hopefully going to be making this mural a reality. um Youth for Kicks. We have Derek with um Elevate Foundation. Um we've leaned on him a lot. He does work in Winwood
just to make sure that we were crossing all of our tees and dotting our eyes. Thank you to development services for the permit process um and permits. So, here we are. Um this has kind of come together.
It kind of took a while and went quickly at the same time. Um, so if you could use your your imagination just a little bit. Um, you can see the first the first uh page in your book has a picture of
the wall but the more realistic mural that will be be the piece you see in the world. Um, that's a Dr. Martin Luther King quote. That is something that kicks did for our art walk, our virtual art
walk during COVID. Um so this is obviously something incredibly meaningful to kicks um as well as to myself as well as to the Southwest um the Southwest neighborhood. So we wanted to find a way to have something where
the kids from the program uh could have something interactive. So if you see the piece towards the right, the top says be the eye in kind. And that will provide an opportunity for you to stand and be the eye in kind. Um so one of those
opportunities for uh not only the community but for visitors to stop and take a picture. Um and then we wanted to tie the two messages in together. So that stained glass, you know, a little kick to kicks being um a Christian um
organization, those cranes will carry some of those stained glass. So that very nice long 148 foot wall. Uh we'll have two beautiful messages and it'll all tie in nicely. Um
and that's it in a nutshell. >> Thank you. And I'll ask this, you know, Mr. manager through staff to staff whoever can answer. In terms of scale, how does 148 ft in length compared to the Greetings from Homestead
mural? Just general half, 3/4 >> the length I think it's like two times and a half probably. >> Okay. But the height is a little bit uh shorter. But at that side it will fit
very well because it's a very long blank wall. So I think it's good for that. >> All right. So this was just to uh put it on the agenda. Let me uh open the public hearing. Is there anyone who would like from the public who would like to speak
on this matter? Not. I'll close the public hearing and I'll entertain a motion for approval. >> I will move it. And one final thing just to keep in mind, um, so Derek started the murals at, um, Homestead Middle
School and they have been using the term um, Homestead Walls. So we thought that this could be um, Homestead Walls Maui murals and then there could be Homestead Walls Midtown Murals. So just an
opportunity to um to give us an additional branding identity of branding. Yes. So thank you. >> It's been moved and seconded. And my little cheat sheet here calls for a roll call vote. >> Councilwoman Abulan.
>> Yes. >> Councilwoman Ksky. >> Yes. >> Councilman Cannibal. >> Yes. >> Councilman Fletcher. >> Yes. >> Councilman Roth. >> Yes. >> Vice Mayor Bailey. >> Yes. >> Mayor Lawson. Yes. >> Motion carries, >> Mr. Pearl. Tab one, please. >> Yes, Mr. Mayor. Tab one is a resolution
of the city council of the city of Homestead, Florida, authorizing the city manager to execute an amendment to three of the federally funded community development block grant mitigation program subreient agreements and related documents. Increasing grant funding for the city's wastewater treatment plant
backup generator project. Providing for implementation, providing for an effective date. >> Thank you. Three key words. increasing grant funding. Anything to add, Mr. Director? >> Uh, good evening, mayor and council. Uh,
no, only that we were very successful. We were very persistent with the granting agency. We tried on multiple occasions and we have a very good relationship with them and thanks to that relationship, they were able to uh give us the the increase that we required.
>> We have questions, comments from council. Is there anyone who would like to speak on this matter? >> So, Mr. Mayor, additionally, it's not just a question of increase in grant money to the tune of $2 million. It's also an extension of time, >> right?
>> So, giving us an additional one year, >> very critical extension of time to >> expend the original plus plus the increase. And that's that's always been the uh the Achilles heel of of some of these grants that that take a lot of
engineering and and design. Okay. So, do we have a motion to approve this item? Moved by Councilman Cannibal. >> Second by Councilwoman Avala. And let's have a roll call vote. >> Councilman Cannibal? >> Yes. >> Councilman Fletcher? >> Yes.
>> Councilman Roth? >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Ksky? >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Avula? >> Yes. Vice Mayor Bailey, Mayor Losner. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you, Mr. Pearl. Item six, >> tab two. >> AB two is the second reading of an
ordinance of the city of Homestead, Florida, amending the budget for the water and sewer utility fund for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2025, ending September 30th, 2026 by increasing the total budgeted revenues and expenditures by $12 million, providing for severability, and
providing for an effective date. >> Thank you. Any questions from council? This is one of those, I think, ministerial budget items just to account for uh loan proceeds that have not yet been expended, nor have we uh specifically
addressed that expenditure uh at this point. So, if there are no questions, let's open the public hearing. Anyone who would like to speak on this matter? So, I'll close the public hearing and ask for a motion on this item. >> Yes. Moved by Councilman Cannibal. We
have a second. >> Second by Councilwoman Avala. And off to a roll call vote. >> Councilman Fletcher, >> yes. >> Councilman Cannibal, >> yes. >> Councilman Roth, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Ksky, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Avula, >> yes.
>> Vice Mayor Bailey, >> yes. >> Mayor Lawner, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> If there is no further business for this special call, Mr. Manager, Council, any further business for special call? >> None, Mr. Mayor. >> All right. Do we have a motion to
adjurnn? Moved and seconded. All in favor? Any opposed? We'll take a very very short uh break here and move into our uh committee the whole agenda in just a moment.
more paper. Thank you. Thank you. >> Oh, okay. Very good. In all these years, the first time I've heard I think What are you doing?
What was that? >> Yeah. All right, let's move the uh committee the whole meeting along if we could if everyone's ready. All right. I'd like to call the city of Homestead uh committee the whole meeting to order. Today is Tuesday, February
3rd, and it is now 5:48 p.m. And Madam Clerk, if you could call the role, please. >> Councilman Fletcher, >> here. >> Councilman Ross, >> here. >> Councilwoman Ksky, >> here. Councilwoman Abula >> here. Councilman Cannibal >> here.
>> Vice Mayor Bailey >> here. >> Mayor Lawson >> here. >> Mr. Manager, are there any additions, deletions, or deferrals this evening? >> Yes. Uh, Mayor and Council, tab number three, car number 4906
is going to be deferred to the next council meeting, February 18th. >> All right. We have a motion to defer that item until the uh council meeting three. The HVAC >> has been moved and seconded. >> Any public comment?
>> Okay. All in favor of the deferral? I. Any opposed? All right. Tab one is the approval of the January 6 committee. The whole minutes. So we have a motion to approve. >> Moved. Moved by the vice mayor, second by Councilman Cannibal. All in favor?
>> Any opposed? All right. Right. Our next item is um tab two. This is a motion to place car number 48.99 on the council agenda. The 2026 Homestead Crab and Seafood Festival. And I believe we have a presentation on behalf of the
foundation by former Vice Mayor Guzman. Welcome back. Thank you. >> Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Vice Mayor. Good evening, council members. It's a pleasure and honor to be with you tonight. So, we're going to talk a little bit about the seafood festival
and we want to request the continued support and inind sponsorship from the city. We had a little bit of a scare earlier this year given the leasehold agreement that you have with the sports
performance hub. But I think through talking through the challenges with the city and staff along with the sports hub, we found a way for that venue to be used once again. So I want to thank city manager. I want to thank city council. I
want to thank staff. I want to thank Pedro as well for being an integral part of that process. I don't know if you guys have been to the seafood festival, but if you haven't, it is a really great family event. This is what we call the signature event in the city of
Homestead. It brings about 20,000 people, and I think this year it might reach 30,000 people. Every year it gets a little bit better. And the funds that are raised through this event are used to give those students who are looking
to pursue higher education. That's where these funds go. And this year, what we're going to do is we're going to open that up to those who are interested in vocational type schooling. So if you want to be an electrician, you want to be an ACT tech, you can now also apply
for this scholarship and it'll open it up to to those students as well. So this event also has raised over a million dollars. Rory has given over a million dollars in scholarships. Last year we gave 60 scholarships. Now people
ask where are the students from? Are they all locally here from Homestead? And they're within the general Homestead area. You can be from 216 down through Florida City. And these scholarships are available to all of those students. Rotary has two big fundraising events in
a year. This one is our major event and the prime rib dinner which I'm sure all of you may have participated is our other big event. So tonight we would like your support to continue the sponsorship in kind with the generators
with the lights with the employees for the trash. We would like Councilman Roth to be up at the front collecting money for the people coming through the gate. So, we would hope that you guys can continue to support this so that we can make this even bigger and better for the city of Homestead.
>> Thank you, Mr. Guzman. Any questions or comments from council? >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Then make a motion. >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> All right. It's been moved by Councilman Cannibal, second by Councilwoman Avala
to um approve this item, place it on the agenda as a as an inkind sponsorship. Um all in favor? >> Any opposed? Right. >> Thank you so much on behalf of the Rotarians. We truly appreciate your support and time.
>> Thank you there. Have a good night. >> All right. Tab three. Okay. We've deferred tab three. Moving on to tab four. This is a motion to place car number 4908 on the council agenda, the Miami Dade zero drownings program.
Councilwoman Avala. Thank you, mayor. We do have Jim with Miami date county to give us a presentation. >> Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, council members. Um, I'm here to, um, ask the city of Homestead to join the Zero
Drowning Initiative. Uh, my name is Jim O' Conor and I'm the chief of the Office of Drowning Prevention for Miami Day County Parks and Recreation and we oversee the logistic and the implementation of the Zero Drownings program. Um the bad news is um the
leading cause of death for accidental death for children ages 1 through 14 in Miami date county is drowning. Uh the good news is we can do something about it. Drownings are preventable. Um essentially what this initiative does we've brought together community
partners, municipalities um to eliminate drowning in Miami date county. We have a three-prong approach. Um the first approach is teaching as many children as possible in swim lessons. Um our main emphasis is working
with Miami Date County Public Schools um other youth organizations such as Head Start, um charter schools, private schools and preschools throughout the county. And what we do is we consider this a field trip during the school
year. So we identify a pool and then we identify a school or preschool within 15 minutes travel time. And then this program takes out two key components why parents don't sign up their children for swim lessons. One of it one of those is
cost. It's completely free. The second is we provide transportation. So we pay for the school buses to support the children and transport them to the schools. And the first thing and the third thing is it's done during the school day. So, so we pick up a group of
kindergarten children at 9:30, say 24 children. We drop them off at Robbie George. We teach a 30 minute class with those kindergarten children. The bus leaves, goes back to the school, picks up another group of kindergarten children, picks up the group that has got done with the lesson, takes them
back to the school. We typically do three to four shuttles a day for a twoe period of time. So we provide lessons um for children um 10 lessons Monday through Friday for two weeks and then we take another group of children after that. The second component of our
initiative is really educating the parents and caregivers. Um everything registration is done online. We work with American Red Cross who's one of our partners along with the Children's Trust and United Way. Um we provide online
training for parents on water safety. Um, we have a national course in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. We actually developed a course in Haitian Creole and that's not only being used here in Date County, but throughout the United States. So, everything has to be
in three languages. Um, we provide that online course to parents. um we get surveys, we provide them with a child certificate, participation certificate that um enforces water safety, not only for their child, but for them to be
safer in, on and around the water. And the final component is a water safety component for the community as a whole. Brand new web page. You hopefully you've seen some of our new PSAs. We just had a a major
media give by ABC for our third 30 minute piece um PSA that's now showing on channel 7 and channel 18 and then our web page itself. The neat thing about our web page is it also promotes lessons that you may have as your parks
department. So once you join our initiative, we put your parks logo and city logo on our web page and they can just click on that and go straight to the parks department to find about other classes. Um that's really how zero drowning works. Year one, we reached
over which you're going to have the see the report on your desk that I had to provide to our county commissioners. Um we provided lessons for roughly 2,200 children. This year we're shooting for 5,000 and when we're fully implemented we're trying to reach 20,000 children
annually. So please join. >> Great. >> Thank you chief for that presentation. I first want to say thank you to Dr. Zaryi for um encouraging me to attend the Miami Day County League of Cities event that uh was held recently because if I had not gone, I would not have run into
your table. And that's where I came into contact with um the Zero Drownings program. And um you know, I I mentioned to Zary, I really wanted to see uh what we could do about getting this program into our city and he uh jumped right in, excuse the pun, to to see how we could
make that work. And our parks department was very familiar with the program as well. So, it was an easy an easy um delivery. And the reality is is that um this program is not going to compete with any of our swimming programs. It's a great complement to our swimming
program and it's data driven which is really important to me um as well. So, being funded through the children's trust, it's a very low um cost to our um to as a fiscal fiscal impact, but that is reimburseable. Can you talk more about that, please?
Thank you. Good. >> Could you expand on the reimburseable portion? Uh >> just um it is as you mentioned it is evidence-based. We do pre and post testing. We have a brand new management information system that we've worked with Microsoft to develop for our
registration invoicing component where we reimburse the different municipalities and swim providers through our fiscal agent which is the Miami Foundation. Um, so you're able to get paid a lot faster than if you went through the county um for the services.
Um, so that was working out very well with our other municipalities. Um, and then um, you know, basically the partners are listed in in the the report that I gave you, some of our key partners that are out there. >> Thank you. And um, you know, I would
love to hear your your experiences and your thoughts. Personally, as a mom of three, I received similar training for my son when he was two years old when the YMCA was here and the uh skills that they teach. This is not learning how to swim. It's learning how to in the event
that you are in a body of water, how to get to a ledge safely and get out. Uh and I just just with a few sessions of this type of training, my son learned how to swim and he swims like a fish and I was able to um continue that th that
training to my other children. So, fantastic um programming and information and the fact that it's going to be at one of our local pools in our southwest, I think it's a great way to activate that uh that park. And one thing I did ask was whether or not we could take some graduating pictures, like
graduation class pictures of the groups that come. So, hopefully we can do that and and showcase the the progress of our participants. And I see that there's mascots in the >> Yeah, you can see some of the different things we have. Um, you know, six different mascots. Um, you know, the
instructors will obey, wear the badges and all kinds of stuff. >> Do we do we pick from here or do we make up our own? >> Uh, no, those are kind of for each station. So, um, so we have like different teaching stations. We'll divide them up by mascots. Um, but those are some of the branding information
that we have. And we would also like you to be part of our communications committees that we have that we meet bi-weekly um for social media um you know typically you know the municipalities, the children's trust as I mentioned the Red Cross um those are
all some of our really key anchor partners. >> Well, thank you very much and I look forward to the support of my colleagues on this item. >> Thank you. Well, thank you. Good. You know, it's interesting. I see this, pardon the pun, as a pool of participants in our future full-scale swimming lessons that I've championed,
you know, to do out of CDBG funds for the last several years. And even mentioned to staff, maybe let's kind of do a play on on this year's events and strive for having those swimming lessons
for 250 kids, at least 250, by the 4th of July. for our 250 right here in in town. So, you know, I think it kind of it creates that that mindset among the kids and the parents to continue that training.
Council Ra. >> Yeah. Just real quick, um I think you covered it, but I remember I was taught how to swim old school way. My parents threw me in the pool and if I didn't come back up, they just grabbed my head and pulled me back out. But uh I I I was
impressed with the fact that the the question I was going to have is how many lessons does it actually take them to to teach? And I think you said they go for 10 days. So they'll be in the pool 10 times during the two week period. >> Yeah, that's it is. And then water safety is a major component of it too. We um teach water safety. You'll see
some of the things called long fellow whale tales where we educate the the child and also the parents you know on certain topics like reach or throw don't go you know just wear wear your jacket or for life jackets those type of things. So we do stress that it is
evidence-based and as you mentioned this program um is a program where we basically we don't like to say the word learn to swim. We talk about swim competency and swim lessons and what our goal is and um is for a child to be able
if they fall into deep water be able to turn around make it back to the side to position of safety and call for help. And that's our pre and post test essentially. And what we found out in year one, um, majority of our children couldn't do that in the pre-EST and 78%
of the children that attended at least seven out of those 10 CH classes at the completion were able to pass um, the post test. You know, um, we don't care how pretty it is, whether the arms are high or that type of thing. It's just a matter of really striving at this level,
making it from point A to point B. It is a great feeder program for your other learn to swim programs. It also, you know, lets the parent know a lot of our problems are the parent may not know where your pool is. Okay. So, this kind of educates the community where your
pools are and also where other children who may younger, older can take lessons. So, it's a great feeder program, too. >> And do you do you do anything for uh adults as well? >> For adults right now, no. Okay. We're kind of limited to um to young children.
Um in the future, we do on the website though, you could promote your adult classes and we do that. >> Yeah, there's a lot of parents of children that don't know how to swim that don't know how to swim as well. In fact, I think a couple years ago, maybe three years ago, uh during race weekend, we had a a family
>> uh one of the kids fell into the canal >> and he didn't know how to swim. His father jumped in after him and he didn't know how to swim and we had two homestead officers right down the street that pulled him out of the water. So, I mean, >> the swimming is very important, especially South Florida, all the canals and and all the things we have down here. So,
>> maybe we need to focus on getting some adult swimming lessons for some folks, too. >> Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you. Is that it? All right. So, make a motion. I think you're good, right? Go ahead. >> The only thing I wanted to say is incredibly happy obviously to see this
happening here. You said for people to see where our pools were, but unfortunately it's only pool where our one pool is. because that's all we have uh for now. But I was wondering if you guys were the ones that did the water watcher. >> We do. As part of our initiative, we
have water watcher cards. Um you can see in the in the information and and what we're talk if you're not familiar with water watcher cards is um if you have say a pool party or to the beach, you need to assign one person as a water watcher. And what that means is they
have one job and one job only and that's to watch the kids. They can't be flipping burgers. They can't be on their cell phone. Um, they really just have one job and that's to watch the kids in on and around the water. >> I borrowed I borrowed from that wonderful idea because we were we were
hosting some different things out at Roby George and invited the families to go to the pools and that's often when when there's more people. It's actually more dangerous than if it's just one or two people watching. So, it's a bright colored lanyard um that says water watcher and whoever is wearing that is the one who is off their phone and
watching the pools. So, as these other swimming uh things come up, I would be happy to to sponsor some lanyards that we can also encourage the adults to make sure that they're being responsible. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> And I apologize. I should have brought you all water watcher cards today.
Badges. >> Motion by council. >> Yes, mayor. Thank you. >> Second by vice may vice mayor Bailey. >> Okay. >> All in favor? >> Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. >> All in favor? Any opposed?
>> All right. Our next item is tab five and this is a motion to place car number 4901 on the council agenda, the wetland mitigation preserve area. >> Anyone opposed to waving the staff
report on this? >> Mr. Manager, anything to add? >> Mr. Har, >> you're here. Go ahead and go to work. I love talking about wetland. >> It's still early. >> No, actually it's very very interesting.
This is the uh mitigation that uh we have under the rock pit that we have to maintain in perpetuity. So we have to get it to looking like a wetland, a natural wetland and keep it as such um basically forever. So this is how we do
this on an annual basis. That's just a contractual obligation that we >> we've lived under for many years. >> Yeah. >> Any further questions? Moved by council a second by council Cannibal. There's no public comment. Didn't think
so. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Mr. Manager, anything further for this meeting? >> Yes, Mr. Mayor and Council. Um, this past weekend was a great weekend. Thank you everyone for participating in the
77th rodeo. Very very impressive. Uh I was there for two nights, Friday and Sunday. And uh of course I saw Councilman Roth and Konsi fully involved in terms of uh playing some key roles.
Thank you for your service and for your leadership as well. Um the mayor was there. Uh council man. Yes. Yes. and you all came with your families and of course uh Councilman Fletcher was as well there on
Friday nights. Uh this coming weekend is going to be the premier roll out of the series Koki night. It's going to be a monthly event. The goal is to continue to activate downtown Homestead. It's going to be on the first Friday of every
month. Uh Karoki night is going to be at Los Park. We hope to see council members kick off the events with their sonorous voices singing their best tunes. Uh our able and fantastic parks department is going to be rolling out
father and daughter dance. The first one ever. It's going to be on the 13th on Friday at Dickinson Community Park. Uh there is also thank you to the vice mayor for your leadership in kicking off this month's Black History Month. It's
going to be the month of February. Uh there will be a series of highlights demonstrating and highlighting black history and heritage all month long. And there will be we're partnering with Simino Theater for a series of events on
the 26th, 27th and 28th. Uh a lot of events to celebrate the black history. Uh I'm actually reminding council mayor and staff that the state of South event is going to be on Thursday. It's going to be at the Miami Day College. Believe
it's at 8:00 in the morning. Uh we were just informed this late this afternoon by the county that there is a small brush fire at the at the base, but it's been actively contained. So just watch out for those with respiratory challenges. Don't be outdoors. Uh that's
all I have. >> Thank you, Mr. Manager. Mr. Attorney, any business? Last minute from councel. All right. Then I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Moved and seconded. All in favor?
>> Motion carries. Thank you all. Good night.