Good evening everybody. We're going to get started with the presentation that we have today. If I can ask the council members to join me here by the by the podium and everyone else please take your seats. All right, there there's JC. Okay. Uh, Councilman Fernandez, here we
go. Councilman Cuadra Garcia, come on. All right. And we have everybody else. Okay. Excellent. So, today's presentation is for a very special resident. Uh, his name is Dr. Gibetto Velasquez. I'd like to ask him to come up at this time. Please come up, doctor.
And for those who don't know, uh Dr. Velasquez is constantly making sure that the council's on their tiptoes um keeping watch over our canopy that it's being preserved and uh and also making sure that we're following best practices, right? Trying to keep Miami Lakes green and beautiful. And uh so in
in recognition also of a substantial donation that he made which I'm going to get to now we are providing him with this certificate of recognition and it reads certificate of recognition proudly presented to Dr. Gibberto Velasco in acknowledgement of Dr. Velasco's
outstanding environmental stewardship and dedication to tree preservation exemplified by the generous donation of 25 live oak trees for the east side of town. The town of Miami Lakes commends your remarkable act of community uh generosity and your steadfast commitment
to enriching our urban canopy. Doctor, thank you very much. Please come here and receive your certificate. Thank you so much. Uh would you like to say a few words? Well, I I've been in Miami live in Miami for the last three years. Is that good?
And um it's been a pleasure be working with you know the park team. Um it's been a fight and it's been also a rewarding experience, right? I think we're happy now that um we have
a new council members, a new mayor, right, that is interested in continuing the hard work and saving our canopy. Um I think our city and our property value it's always very important right and also we want to make sure that this hard
work that many people establish in this city for many many years continue in the future. Thank you. Thank you doctor. Hey stay here. Come over here for a photo. Good evening. I'm calling the meeting to
order at 6:30 p.m. Uh the regular council meeting for August 19th, 2025. Madame Clerk, please call the role. Council member Cuadra Garcia, present. Council member Fernandez, present. Council member Garcia,
he's absent. Council member Hsburg, present. Council member Sanchez, present. Vice Mayor Morera, present. Mayor Diegas, here. Mayor, you have quorum. Excellent. Everyone, please rise for the invocation and moment of silence.
Before we get to the invocation, I'm going to turn it over to Councilman Sanchez for to lead us in a moment of silence. So today's moment of silence, um four years ago to the day, Sergeant Edward Perez of the Miami Beach Police Department, my next door neighbor, um
succumbed to CO 19. He left behind his wife, Linda Perez, and his daughter, Julia. She's a sophomore right now at Barbara Gman. And I would like to dedicate today's moment of silence to he and his family. Thank you. Please remain standing. Um I I also
wanted just to acknowledge the death of former Mayor Pizzy's mother, Mary Pizzy, uh who passed away recently. Um a very sweet lady who I had the chance to know um when I was younger. And uh if you would just also please uh just keep her in your thoughts a moment.
Thank you, Vice Mayor, for the invitation. Thank you, Mayor. Just bow your heads. Dear Lord, we thank you for bringing us together this evening in service to our community. We ask that you grant us wisdom and discernment so that every decision we make is guided by integrity and always in the best interest of the
constituents who have entrusted us with this responsibility. Help us to listen with respect, debate with civility, and act with courage, keeping the well-being of our residents at the heart of all we do. Tonight, we also lift up a prayer beyond our town for peace in our world. We ask your blessing upon the ongoing
peace talks brokered by the US between Russia and Ukraine. As Jesus taught us to forgive, may those leaders be guided towards forgiveness and reconciliation, setting aside bitterness and pride, and instead embracing understanding, healing, and the protection of innocent lives. Back here at home, we ask for
your hand of protection over our law enforcement officers and our first responders who serve with courage and sacrifice to keep our community safe. Bless us with unity and inspire us to serve faithfully in the best interest of our town and the people who call it home. Amen. Amen. And now for the pledge of pledge of
allegiance led by Councilman Fernandez. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Thank you. You may be seated. Council, we're now on item five, the order of business. Are there any deferrals, additions, or deletions? to for item 16M I would like to add a request for a waiver of rule 6.0 6.10.
Okay. Um why don't we just take that up as we get to it. Um you know because there's a couple other ones I believe that also including mine that require a waiver. So well to add it add the request for the waiver. Right now it doesn't have Oh it doesn't have the Okay. Okay. Okay. Got it. Okay. Understood. And which item was that again? 16
16 M M. Okay. Perfect. Any other uh changes? U Mr. Vice Mayor? Uh as you said, I'm going to skip the the waiverss. Um I move to consider
items 16A and 16N as in Nancy together. Uh I also move to provide the report uh requested by council member Cuadra Garcia under 16I during item 8C the the
public works report. Uh and then I move to or I'm sorry I said 8C I meant um 8 L or 8C. It's correct. Uh the the public works report. Uh and then I move to pull item 12F from consent.
Any other changes presented? Councilman Garcia who has arrived. Thank you. I move to move the uh 11A the check presentation to after public comments. Any other changes? Council.
Yes, mayor. I want to pull um item 12E from consent. 12E. Okay. Anything else before I I read back uh all the changes? All right. So, what I got is to move 11A to after public comments. That would be
the check presentation by Representative Fabricio. Uh taking up item 16 I together with uh 8 C. pulling from consent items E and F and considering items 16N wi with uh
16A. Is that accurate? Okay. Is there a motion? So move. So moved. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. All oppose? No. The eyes have it. The item carries and the agenda is amended as as stated. And we are now in public comments. Madame
clerk. Good evening. Good evening to the regular council meeting and as always we're going to um listen to the public comments. We're going to forward each speaker three
minutes. We welcome as well the um participants that are joining us online. Thank you for watching our meeting. Just please always take note that if you do want to speak, select your raise hand and it will let you in. And if you're
calling to as well provide public comments or to even to listen, just always raise your hand by pressing number9 and it will see you. I ask everyone to please comments and questions from the attending public to
always be directed to the mayor in a courtous tone. And to ensure the orderly conduct and efficiency of this meeting, we're going to provide, as I stated earlier, three minutes. And please, no clapping, no applauding, no verbal outburst in support of or in opposition
to a speaker shall be permitted. So again, welcome. If you're here for public comments, please just approach the podium, state your name and address for the record, and welcome. Bonnie Cron, 14770 Lewis Road. Good
evening, Mayor Diegas, council members, and staff. This is my second day back in this time zone, and I'm still dealing with jet lag, so I'll try try to be brief. Tonight's agenda is full of issues that would prompt me to make my
voice heard, but I intend to go to the bud budget workshops where I can give my opinions on specific issues. Tonight I'll speak in general terms and some of my comments might not be very popular with some of my fellow residents because
what I see that you are facing is a dilemma with budgeting just as many of us are doing in our private lives. Um the question is we know that cuts have to be made but where and how that
plagues all of us. Uh, I think some selfanalyzing should be done. You see, as I see it, many of us have become a little spoiled and we want our cake and we want to eat it too. This is a time we all have to tighten
our belts and deal only with priorities and only with genuine needs. Government was never meant to entertain us or take care of us as though we are children. Keeping us protected and enforcing our laws are all that is truly essential.
But many have become on the government to solve many other problems. If you did not keep trying to do more for us, you would not have to raise our taxes to keep funding the programs and projects that you propose. We must stop seeking
grant money all the time which we then have to match or at least pay a huge share. There is a grant mentioned in the agenda tonight that does not require any matching funds. That kind is always acceptable, I'm sure. But like an
example of what would be a huge expense is that pursuit of the resilient Florida grant to deal with a drainage issue. We should know that nature's actions may be mitigated somewhat, but if one lives in
a flood zone when our torrential rains come, there will always be flooding. Spending millions may well be just spinning our wheels when keeping existing drains clear and perhaps adding a couple of new ones is all that needs
to be done. And people will have to learn to deal with the flooding as best they can because it will always be happening. Also, although we may not have to eliminate many jobs from our governing staff, some may well be indeed found to be unnecessary or at least
overpaid. Residents will always appreciate living here in Miami Lakes if our deed restrictions are enforced, therefore keeping the aesthetic beauty of the residential community intact and if our
crime rates remain low. We live in a tri county area, Monroe, Dade, and Broward that offers so many choices for activities and events that our town should not have to spend much at all for sponsoring a few local events each year.
Just stick to the ones that are well attended. I look forward to the budget workshops where specific issues will be addressed. Thank you. Thank you, Bonnie. Next speaker. Welcome, Mr. President.
Ray Palasios, uh, president of the Miami Lakes Chamber of Commerce. Um, as president of the Chamber of Commerce, I want to begin by thanking Councilman Garcia for bringing forward an important topic in today's new business section.
Um, I'm here to represent every business in my MLA, not just members of the chamber, uh, but both that those that are not. Um, I want to acknowledge something we all know. Every city across Florida is facing tight budgets. Miami Lakes is no no exception. I certainly
don't envy the difficult choices you as a council have to make. That's why I bring this idea as a way of thinking outside the box. A small step that can make a big difference. I'm requesting your consideration in adding a modest, very small $20 search charge to the
annual business tax receipt fee that's paid by the local small businesses. Um, this fee is not meant as a burden, but rather an investment when collected across all of our businesses. We have over 4,000 businesses in Miami Lakes.
Um, we're only collecting about 60% of those business tax receipts right now, but 60% still amounts to a whopping budget at $20 per business of anywhere from $40,000 to $80,000 a year.
Um, and in one dedicated exclusively to promoting Miami Lakes and its businesses, so many of our small businesses are hurting. Some are struggling due to the lack foot traffic uh lack of foot traffic from outside the town, even within. Others are feeling the effects
of what has been the worst retail and restaurant earnings summer in nearly two decades. Despite the resilience, they need our help. With this fund, we could make Miami Lakes as the designation it deserves to be, attracting new visitors,
supporting our local shops and restaurants, and creating new energy for our town's economy. In short, it's a small idea with the potential for a big return, a stronger, more visible Miami Lakes that benefits us all and grows even more beautifully.
Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your continued commitment to keeping our community and our businesses thriving. Before you go, Mr. President, can you please state your address for the record? It will, you know, it's something we require. It's uh 1 19389 Northwest 14th Street,
Penrook Pines, Florida 33029. Thank you. I promise none of us are going to stalk you. You're good. Next speaker, please. Councilwoman Rouano, welcome back. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members, and town staff. Marilyn Ruano,
15515 Northwest 83rd Court. I know that you won't be discussing the budget this evening, but I wanted to reach out and extend some words before you go into your workshop. Um, I've received many phone calls from many residents that are slightly offended by the proposed budget
at such a high millage rate. I understand that the town um has some expenses. I went through the budget myself and there are some expenses that will be inevitable and that we will have to perhaps have a small increase in the millillage, but there are many, many, many items on that budget that should
have never been presented to the residents of this town. So, I urge you to please sharpen your pencils and remember that all seven of you are in the driver's seat. Not the town manager, not the town staff, but the seven of you that knocked on our doors and promised us that you were going to be fiscally
responsible. So, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilwoman. Next speaker. And I'm sorry, Claudia, the AC is still not cooperating. Thank you. Excuses, excuses. Okay. Huh. I know. I told you guys, you
know, you should dress accordingly at this point. Don't forget. Just set up some tables outside with a speaker system. It'd be a little bit cooler for you. All right. Claudia loses 8220 Menith Terrace. Yes, I know there's no AC. You know, we're going on five months.
It's kind of sad when you think about it, right? you're proposing, you know, one heck of a millillage. And yes, you know, to uh uh Councilwoman Rouano's um comments, there are people that are upset. Why isn't there foot traffic at
the businesses? Quite honestly, because we are being taxed to death. Every time we turn around, there is a tax. Now, the new one, I believe, is the garbage tax. Okay? So, every time we turn around, our residents are receiving some form of a
tax. At some point in time, our residents are just not going to be able to deal with this anymore. So, where does where do we stop with this millillage, okay? Fund what is essential. That's what you need to do. And I'm going to I'm going to
give you an example. Okay. I think last time I was here, I didn't get to speak, but I had the pictures. I think I sent them to you, Councilman Mora. Um, about the sinks at the park. So we build it and then we can't
maintain it. And this is the problem. We continue to build and propose ideas and do things yet we cannot function. We cannot maintain our the very infrastructure that we have now. You know what? I love the fact that by my house I have a new bench and two trash
receptacles. Great. And they put some concrete and all that. You know what I would have preferred? new sinks at our signature park, which is veterans. That would have been better. I appreciate it. Don't get me wrong, okay?
But we need to prioritize things. And this is what, you know, I know we're not talking about the budget, but guess what? We're talking about the budget because it affects us all. That proposed millage is ridiculous. You threw everything in there. not you
guys, but the preparation of this, everything is in there. Everything that you could possibly want was thrown in there. Here you go. And it's a tactic then. Okay, you know what? We're going to go ahead and and play the game. You know, this is the 2.6, but it's okay. Well, we're going to lower it to 2.3.
See, see how nice we are? Everybody's on to it. Understand that. Everybody sees through it. You guys have to go through that budget and really determine what is a priority. What is a necessity? What is it that we really need to fund?
The money is not there. The residents are being taxed to death. And I tell you this, I mean, when I saw that notice, I said, "Oh, here we go. A little bit more here. Waiting for the next hit." And yes, you know, McDonald's used to be packed that line. You don't see that anymore. Why? Because again, they're
going to pass that cost on to us, the consumers. The consumers ultimately make the decision either to continue to support the businesses because they can. And I don't think it's a matter of not liking the businesses. I think people like the businesses. They like the small businesses. It's whether or not they can
afford them. So, think about that. Thank you. And thank you, Claudia. Next speaker. All right. Seeing no more speakers in chambers, madam clerk, are there any online? I see several participants. It please allow them to speak if they're
raising their hand. No one has raised their hand, mayor. So I believe that online remote public comments we don't have tonight. Okay. Um so with that public comment is now closed and uh council if you'll join me uh below to join representative
Fabricio in the check presentation to the town of Miami leagues. My apologies Alicia sorry and Alicia representing Senator Aila who is currently deployed uh as part of the National Guard. There we go.
And before you guys go, I just wanted to say thank you to Senator Avia, Representative Fabricio for helping us. This money obviously goes a long way to helping to fund infrastructure in the town of Miami Lakes. Uh this money goes uh toward drainage and a variety of other projects. in the years past, you guys helped us get the final piece of
the funding we needed to get 59th Avenue done and begin that process. So, thank you very much. And I don't know if uh you guys would like to say anything else. All right, perfect. Representative Fabricio. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, town council. Um I appreciate that we were
able to get this project done. I got to say that number one, uh we well I want to thank uh Senator Avala's office for working with us and working alongside. Senator Avala is a phenomenal senator who represents this area as well as quite a another big chunk of northwest
Miami Day County and myself. I'm your state representative for district 110 that uh represents the entire town of Miami Lakes uh country club and some PSN and some other areas around it and a good chunk of Haley as well. So this check the the $1.6 million these are
your tax dollars. These are dollars that you have paid in your taxes through property taxes and and and other uh uh sales taxes that go up to the state of Florida and then we bring them back down to you. So, Senator Avala and I have fought to bring these uh dollars back to
do two projects this year. And one is the turn lane at 154th coming off the Palmetto. So, that's going to improve traffic flow at that intersection. And the other is the uh the Big Cypress drainage project to reduce flooding. So these are taxes that you've paid that we
bring them back to you so that they those tax dollars can work for you here. We're working very hard at the state level to cut taxes. One of the things that we're looking at for this next legislative session is what is going to happen with property taxes and whether we're going to be able to shave those property taxes down to some degree. It's
a big battle. It's hard. But I want you to know that at the state level, and I'm sure here at the municipal level, they're going to they're going to do the right thing. But at the state level, we are fighting to cut your property taxes so that you can keep your homes. Your home is your house and you should be able to keep that. That should not be taxed. You shouldn't be renting it from
the government. So, we're working on making that happen and we're going to work on seeing what we can do to get that passed this coming year. So, hopefully that'll be on the referendum that'll be on a statewide referendum in November of 26. So, it's an honor to represent you all. Thank you so much. Thank you to Senator Avula and to all
the to mayor, all the members of the council. Uh you guys know that my office is here uh in town of Miami Lakes. Anything that we can do to help uh please let us know. Um my district aid Felicia is here. Felicia, say hello to everyone. And my legislative aid Nikita is here as
well. So and and Alli is Brian Aala's aid. She is just like Nikita and Felicia. So without our aid, thank you. please. Without our staff, we couldn't do nearly what we do. So, we we provide a heck of
a lot of constituent services. We field a lot of calls. We've gotten a lot of calls on the tax issue. So, we hear it just like you guys are you guys have heard phone calls. I'm sure I've gotten a lot of phone calls, too. So, it's a very important issue. So, let's see how we can cut taxes and keep Miami looks beautiful. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Representative. And thank you, Alicia. And uh before we go back up, uh I just want to take a moment to acknowledge uh two birthdays that uh just passed. Starting with Council Member Fernandez. Happy birthday.
And Councilman Herszburg, whose birthday was yesterday. Huh? Oh, and yes, and Claudia's is tomorrow. And it so happens we did have enough money in the budget to get a nice cake for for everybody.
So, if you'll please join me in uh wishing happy birthday to these three wonderful people of our community. Um again, I'm a horrible singer, so I need all all of you to help me drown out, you know, my voice. Oh, there we go. You you want to sing, Angela?
Well, here we go. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear JC, Steven and Claudia. Happy birthday to you.
Wishing you three all the best. Is this All right, council. We are now on item seven, appointments. We have two appointments that have been made and they've been sworn into their respective committees already. Uh and I believe that they're here in chambers.
So, uh when I call your name, please stand up. Uh beginning with Christina Gonzalez, who I appointed to the youth activities task force aka Kiki. We also have uh Esther Lame. Is that how
you say it? Esther Esther to uh appointed by Councilman Sanchez to the education advisor board. Thank you very much ma'am with Yeah, that's what I said. Mayor, before we proceed, let me just state for the record that my office
received two emails written public comments. One from Mr. Carlos A Costa was earlier. Both of them were received this morning and I never read them but I just read a little bit of what the email
was about. Traffic in Royal Oaks when kids get in and out of school and he wrote about you know the situation of traffic around Bob Graham Education Center that something needs to be done. And then the other written public
comment is from Mr. Derek Cron and he wrote a lengthy email that again you all have. I emailed to all of you earlier today, but this one has to do with a preamble, the town charter that
we need to respected to look into wants versus needs. And um you all have it, but I just wanted to state for the record these two were received earlier today and they are written public comments. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Uh, with that,
we're turning to item eight, the manager's reports. Mr. Manager. Yeah, I'm going to call on the police major first because I don't think that we got the um the first item A to the uh IT yet. So, if we can start off with
item B first and then we'll get the um the other presentation to them. Welcome, Major Gonzalez. Good evening, everyone. Major Gonzalez, the town commander with the police report for July. Um we'll start off with the National Night Out. We had a real successful national night out. We had a nice bike ride. Thank you for those that
you attended. It was a lot of fun. Even though the weather was iffy, we did get to pull it off. We didn't have any rain. We had some food trucks out there. We had some good turnout from the community and uh we had a real good time with the community riding bike with us. And thanks for everybody who attended. Um we
uh finished the uh summer hiatus and we're back to school. Um which brings back our normal uh school traffic. Um however, we're always ready for that. at the beginning of school. The most challenging school that we have, obviously, you've heard um one of the uh comments from the residents is Bob Graham. Um but we do have a uh plan that
we we put in for the first couple of days, which is Thursday, Friday, and this Monday, to make sure we put extra officers out there onto 154 Street. Um we mitigate traffic coming out of the shopping center to provide for the quicker flow of traffic. But like we tell all parents, and we're all parents,
we know the first day of school is tough with kids. It's challenging because they don't want to get out of the car. These schools don't let you walk them into the classroom anymore. So, it's it's, you know, it's getting the child and the parent accustomed to a smoother transition out of the car in the morning. But once that starts to happen,
we don't have any issues in the morning. In the afternoon, same thing. We uh we have our no left turn southbound that we're manually going to continue to man and that's not going to be an issue. And of course, it's the first couple of days of school, so we're slowly everything started to gradually uh ease and things are looking a lot better as of today.
Um, moving on to the AM and FPM traffic. It's starting to look a lot better. The lights are really synced really good. They are working. It's just there's a lot of traffic because everybody's still coordinating their times of what times to get to class, get drop off the kids, and then head to work. Um, crime, we continue to stay steady. We're down at
the 56% uh against last year's numbers. Um, we continue with the high visibility and the uh traffic enforcement. uh for the traffic enforcement for the month of July. We wrote 35 written citations, 192 warnings, and 32 parking citations. And
with that, I open it up for any questions. Any questions, council? Yes, Mr. Vice Mayor. Um it's less of a question, more of a I guess comment and precaution. Uh I know that uh the 154th and Palmetto Expressway turnlane
project which uh director Santos is going to cover in a little while that project got a little delayed. So now we are spilled over into the school year and then on top of that we're going to have construction. Just want to make sure the two of you that the left hand is talking to the right hand in terms of preparations and so that your team is
equipped to handle those lane closures if we're not able to avoid lane closures during the day. Yes, sir. My understanding from speaking with my co-partner there is that they're going to be doing at night time. So they're not it shouldn't be obstructing and it should be done before the early morning rush hour starts. But we'll be prepared just in case there's some
delays in construction. Thank you, sir. Through the chair, Mr. Councilman Garcia. Yeah. I wanted to um thank um Councilman Sanchez efforts. I'm hearing the no left turn is continuing to be a success. I know it's it's beginning, but I'm hearing positive things compared to to
other years in the beginning of the school year. Yes. I know that the efforts that he made and and and you're making and you know the entire staff is making um your staff as well is making a difference. I know it's it's hard like you said the first couple first week first couple weeks but people are telling me that
they see a difference uh not you know night and day but but a difference that that it's they can they can I personally driven through even Royal Oaks. I was there yesterday right before release time and there is no traffic coming out of there because they can't make a left and there's nobody staging
to the north of the school. Uh I think there might be a couple of cars either residents in there and they don't want to get caught outside and I guess the kids walk to the cars and they pick them up and they they go um to to local locations but besides that there's not really an outbound traffic jam coming
out of the guard house to uh to to to make it to the school. Thank you for your efforts. Anyone else? Yeah, Councilman Herszburg. Thank you. Uh, just a comment. I I've been noticing myself the increased visibility. I think what you've done with uh, you know, parking, having
officers right there on 154th at night. I I even told you the story. 3:00 a.m. One of my kids woke up. I looked out the window and there was an officer there. So, it's clear that they're around and and they're being visible, especially with your change with uh, the the lights staying on like you like you've started. I think the rest of the county move
forward and doing that after you started. So, good work and the numbers don't last. I appreciate it. Thank you. Anyone else? Councilman Guad. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, thank you, Mr. uh, Major. Um, the work is, uh, outstanding out there. I'm actually one
of your new, uh, soldiers. I'm up uh, at all times of the night. I saw one of your officers uh, talking to a gentleman. We've been I've been seeing a lot of people pop up from different parts of different areas. For example,
over on 139, the the the canal embankment that separates Hyia from Miami Lakes. Uh we've had some settlers come in. They're actually setting up homes and at 2 or 3 in the morning. So, uh I've been seeing them. They try to
bring their homes there and set up and we've been moving them about three of them. Also the other day uh here around 2:30, one of your officers was uh talking to a gentleman that I don't know what he was doing at around 2:30 at night. I wonder if he was going to
church at that time of the night, but um he was being talked to, but we're we're seeing some uh different things like uh I have nothing against homeless people, but we we've been seeing them that they're trying to uh come and uh use our town as a as shelter, but you know, are
we working with them? Uh yes, if we uh that's what probably we're doing. We're probably making contact with them um identifying if they need any assistance, if they need transportation. Um you know, what with their businesses, if they have any, and if they're suspicious, we'll make contact with
anybody who's kind of may be might be lurking around the neighborhood. So, we're engaging suspicious activity if there's any. Um they might have been on a call, somebody might have called the police. That person might have called for assistance. So, there's a variety of things that could have been going on there, but our officers are vigilant.
They're out at night. You're going to see them visibly with their lights on. Um, they're also doing traffic at night also and all types of enforcement. So, they're they're doing very well. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. JC, anything? All right. Thank you very
much, Mr. Mayor. Major gave you a pro another promotion. It's a trap. This is definitely a um with that u Mr. Manager, next report. Yeah, I'm going to go with the public works. We're we're still working on that presentation for the storm water one.
So, let Omar run on his uh presentation. We'll let you know. Good evening, council. Uh this time I would like if uh council member Garcia would like to present his item first. I think I know it was moved. All right, we'll go to council Garcia
for a motion. 16 I 16 I the canal stabilization report that you wanted to request page 200 council basically your mic is why has it taken been so long
to get a report on this on this situation. I mean, I would like to ask why why so long, Mr. Manager? If I I may I mean, this has been going on for This is Hold on. Hold on. This is You
need to make a motion. So, what is the motion? The motion is to ask why have we taken so long? No, no, no. that that the motion is to direct the administration or the attorney to take some action. It's not about question. We can't get into discussion unless the item is properly
before the body. And to have the item properly before the body, you need a motion which is seconded by another member of the council. So you you need to make a motion first uh directing some kind of action um which will then be seconded and then we can have discussion
including questions to the manager. Okay. So, I have a motion to uh ask the manager or staff to if I may, Councilman Cuadra Garcia, if you go to your memo, I believe your motion was to ask the staff to prepare a
thorough comprehensive report. Yes. On on canal bank civilization. So, I think that's your the motion you're trying to make. That is correct. Please restate it one more time. It's on page 200. There was I I'm sorry I didn't get to it on time.
And so bas basically I make a motion to direct staff to find out where are we in the process of getting this report
to us. And where where do we stand on the queue? Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Let's begin with Vice Mayor Mora and we will come back to you council Garcia so you can ask your questions. Primarily I seconded uh just to allow us to proceed to discussion as I believe uh
part of the reason why I combine this with the public works uh infrastructure report is maybe uh director Santos can I get give a little bit of insight here followed by the assuming the council approves this item come back with a more comprehensive and thorough report.
Excellent. Councilman Guad Garcia before I move on to the rest of the council. Uh so you can ask your questions. Continue. So you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Basically just asking why has it taken so long to get
this report? It's been almost uh six, seven months. May Mayor the public works director is ready and prepared to uh give the full you know the steps taken during this report and the timeline and the horizon time horizon for this report to come back to you
Mr. Santos. Good evening council mayor. So the in the field inspection or the field work that was done for this project was completed during the months of January and February of this year. About three
to four months after that was when we got the inspection report. That inspection report lists the findings of the FE that the field staff observed on site. There's over 30 different properties broken down into each one what what each finding represents. After
that, the engineer that's going to write the opinion received and reviewed that document. and that engineering and his team is preparing the engineering uh document of the opinion. That draft was received this week. I will take about a
week to uh a week and a half to do my review, provide comments if any uh make sure that any information is accurate, mainly addresses, name of projects, etc. And then we hope within a month's time to have that final report. Obviously
throughout that time I will provide uh any updates through the manager if any of that changes so he could communicate that to this body. Mayor Mayor. Yes, Mr. Vice Mayor. It's just a a quick point. I mean, I don't remember the exact date that we
went out there, but I remember it was prior to the November election. Uh the the item might seem uh exaggerated, but it it's not. It has been a while. It's been a considerable amount of time since the last November
election and our visit out there was before then. Um because I remember being out there with Vice Mayor Fernandez. Uh so let let's try to get this thing out cuz we need to know whether we need to enforce some of the terms in the contract with our vendors. We need to
know if we need to do anything about the condition of the canal banks u stabilization. We also need to know if our canal banks are stable and safe. Uh so let's just try to get it out as soon as possible. Thank you. Thank you. Uh anyone else wishing to speak on this
item? I do. All right. Let's see. Councilman Sanchez, do you believe we'll have it before us at the next council meeting in September? That that would be our goal. Obviously, if that if there's a change in that timeline, I'll communicate it through
the manager. Is there anything that we can do to expedite the process in the submission of the report? No, right now the engineer he's in he's been going through research going out to see if there's any other cases throughout the nation and and the state.
Okay. That he can use as a as backup for what he's observed and and explain what what's uh causing the obs the things that have been observed the deficiencies. Okay. Thank you. Uh Mr. Mayor, if I may add, Councilman Quad Garcia,
all he has to do is go to DAL, which they stated that that's the the actual ones that they started and it's all it and they're all destroyed. That's where they need to go. They don't need to go anywhere out out of the state. They go right here to Dell and
see them. They're destroyed. They were broken before they were even done. All right. All those in favor of the item say I. I. I. I'll oppose. No. The eyes have it. The motion carries. And u Mr. Santos, you're recognized now
for your regular uh monthly infrastructure report. Thank you. First, I would like to clarify that AC is working. It's just not 100%. If it was not working, we would not be able to be in this room. It would be unbearable. I will again say, do not gaslight me.
I do I did not mean it. Um, another another project I would highlight which has been asked about in the past is the 59th Avenue extension. The most recent development, we completed our internal review of the 30%
plans and we submitted those drawings over or comments back to our engineer of record who will be implementing those comments eventually getting that to 60% and at that point will be submitted to the Florida Department of Transportation for their review.
Um, just a general comment for for residents. If they have questions about projects that the public works department is working on, please feel free to reach out to us. We're always happy to to provide accurate information. Uh, as far as timelines,
completion, if there's anything that seems as going so, please call us. If we don't respond, please leave us a voicemail. We commit ourselves to responding as soon as we can. So, with that, I open it up to questions. Any comments, questions? Uh, council member
Sanchez. Then council member Garcia. With regards to the park west pedestrian and bike bicycle improvement at the council meeting last month, it said construction to begin in fiscal year 26. See, it's been moved to fiscal year 27. What I was explained earlier is the state fiscal year, not our fiscal year.
What are the chances that it can be brought back to fiscal year 26? So, the project will be bid in January of 26 of calendar year 26. The reason you see it also in 27 is because the project goes into fiscal year 27 for FDOT.
Okay. So there's money begin in fiscal year 27. No, but we we have it we have it to be let which is for for bidding in in January of 26. Yeah. If anything I could we can discuss that later. Okay. Yeah, that's all I wanted to thank you
Councilman Garcia. Thank you, Mayor. Um and again I just just this is a summary I understand but you get a little more detail where we are with I know every month I ask the demolition brother what's the So the demolition currently the vendor
is working on attaining his bond his uh payment and performance bond. He requested last week two weeks to get that completed. We're still within the the timeline to to close that out. So we're hoping that he'll stick to that timeline. And once that's all said and done, everything's signed and sealed,
we'll we'll start working with the perimeter. What is the um what is the bottleneck when it comes to asking for that bond? That would be his shy and what his shy is requesting of him. But we've already put that in in the contract we've asked them and
everything. That's on him. That's we require the bond. Then it's up to the awarded vendor to secure the bond. Yes. Okay. And how much time do we give them to secure that bond in the contract? What are the is there is there actual writing that says you have certain
amount of time because there is a I mean finding a bond uh or going through this process happens all the time. So I'm sure you guys know exactly how long that takes usually for projects this size. 14 days. 14 days. Okay. So he's so he's on track.
He he asked for an extension. I guess the question I'm asking is did he request with did he expedite that request as soon as he knew he had to go as he postponed this? Is this has it been have you seen this happen quicker? Is he doing something? Yeah, it's not unusual for this to
happen if Shy is requesting additional information. We've had projects that they have the bond within a day or two. Uh some of them may even have it. Yeah. Are we in in this one that being demolition is a scope that at least the it's more most
recent to the town. So it may be that they are requiring a few extra items from the contractor related to the scope but and and I'm sure the staff is in constant communication trying to expedite that. Okay. If there is any delay further that
that's unusual. I would love to, you know, if you could let let us know and see what we can do. Uh, anything we can do because honestly, um, these things are coming up and one week here, two weeks there, three weeks there, every month, two months
at some point if he for some reason, which we don't anticipate, but if for some reason he is unable to attain that, then he will not be qualified to receive. Are we giving him a time? Is there a timeline that we've already established? He don't That was those those two weeks. Two weeks. Okay. Yeah. Okay. That's that's why I started with
Yeah. All right. So, if you can let us know as soon as that h if if a week goes by and it's not that bond is not issued, can you please let the council know and what is our next step if that happens? At that point, we would have to bring
the the second bidder for consideration and if that is not accepted, we would have to go out to bid again. Okay. And I'm sorry to continue to to to beat a dead horse here, but is it that his financials weren't in order or is it that the scope of the projects is so
different from other projects that it's that that they're requesting a longer um uh time or more information from him? More information. As far as the financials, we we haven't received the exact details as to why it's taking longer there. He's just being he's being
requested additional information from the Did he give you the response in writing from the from the company showing what Okay, so you have all that information and they call Okay, good. That's and and again I I know you're you're on top of it. Thing is again every I'm going to bring this up every month because the more longer
we wait, the more expensive it is going to be for our taxpayers to complete this project. So everything we can do to prevent these little things is what I'm trying to avoid and why, you know, why we we we we hired that consultant to come in and and and try to find these things that could be
issues. So um continue to work with that and continue to the the you know the transparency. I love it. It's great. Thank you so much. But please let us know if there's anything we can do prior to having to go through the next vendor down the road because that's going to postpone us.
Yeah. Yeah, that could be 6 months. Omar, walk the council if you don't mind. Real quick, readers digest version. Once the bond is, if that's the last missing step, once the bond is secured and we're able to execute the fi the the agreement with them, what are the steps that now that contractor has
to take before we see the very first sledgehammer? So, at that point, we enter permitting. the contractor is required to hold the entire permitting process or or perform the entire permitting process on their own. First, they'll submit a permit application through our building
department that gets forwarded to the county. At that point, and Danny, correct me if I'm he's there. I say something wrong, but at that point, we may be required or the contract may be required to provide information related to environmental items, maybe asbestos,
lead paint, etc. uh additional testings. Those types of items can delay the the first day of of that we bring the sledgehammer down, but it's just part of the the work that you have to do when you're demolishing a a structure. Understood. But we're aware that there
is lead paint there already. That it used to be a garage, so there's going to be environmental issues. Is the countyy's already aware of this. Am I correct? It's not going to be a surprise to anybody that, oh, by the way, we found this. I mean, You still have to go through the process though.
So it's not what the county will have its requirements to deal with what what's found in that in that structure during the permitting process. Okay. Yeah. If there's anything we can do as a as a town or I know I know Danny's on it, but
anything that we can do beyond this, you know, beyond the scope of what we usually do to move this project along, I would ask you to do it. anything you need from us. Uh I just I'm I'm seeing a lot of possibilities for delays here that I'm trying to to see if we can
avoid. And these are things that happen all over the all over the the you know the county constantly. So it's not surprises that we're not going to be surpris that's all these questions are all about. Thank you so much. And the staff and the contractor too,
they're we're committed to getting this completed as quickly as possible. Uh it's not in our interest to keep these projects dragging, of course. Yeah. Uh but we do have to make sure that we're we're in compliance with any and all environmental uh requirements. The vice mayor wants to start knocking walls down.
He told me he's ready. He has the he has the hammer ready. If we're going to go to the vice mayor, then to Councilman Herszburg. All right. Again, not to beat the dead horse, but I did have that specific item marked off. But specifically, the part where it's an entire month, this thing was awarded, the contract was awarded a
month ago, and it's an entire month to sign on a dotted line. If you're telling me that obtaining the bond is a precondition to to signing, I understand that. But again, uh I actually have more questions than I had before I started this meeting. They asked for an
extension. How long ago did they ask for an extension? Was it an open request for an extension, meaning we need an extension, or was it a closed request for an extension, meaning we need until this day to It was closed. It was a twoe request, right? Specifically, a twoe request. Okay. What was the gap between
this contractor and second place? I think it was significant. Significant. I don't have the numbers in front. I don't even remember what the the second bidder was. Okay. In the in the meantime, I I'll I'll move on to other items. Um, with regard to
the Park West pedestrian and bicycle improvements and fairway drive bike lanes and crosswalks, can you just confirm both of those are matching grant funded? We Yeah, we we have a match and I remember correctly, we have our design
uh the the payment for the design services as our match, right? Okay. So construction is not part of a matching grant. No, construction is funded by the grant. Okay. So our match is with the design.
Well, we pay for the design. We put in the design from our funds and that's what the match is. Gotcha. Um the Montro Road drainage improvements. Last month it said at 60% uh design. This
month it says at 60% design. No change. I don't really care why. I I'm just saying hurry this up that we prepared this report a few days before, but we already got the next phase with the the 90s. We're currently scheduled to have a meeting,
I think it's tomorrow, to go over those. The reason we had a slowdown in there was utility related. We had to do additional utility exploration. Being one of the main roads, there's more utilities than a regular residential road. So, the the engineer of record
wanted to confirm had to move some of the the pipes to make sure that we don't run into issues. All right. Uh I make a big deal out of this one because it's not just a town concern, it's a regional concern. Uh that is a polling location. Uh this
drainage project is directly tied to the repaving of the entrance into Mary Collins. Uh you I've been told I my non-engineer brain doesn't agree, but that's a whole different story. Um that one is tied to the other. That needs to
be improved. We all we all sat there during elections. Every single car that's not a pickup truck is bottoming out and that's unacceptable in the town of Miami Lakes. That and I know it's been like that for a long time. Uh again, it should have never been allowed to get to that, but that project
has my eye because it's tied to that. Not only is it one of our public parks that people have to be afraid of accessing the parking lot for, but also one of our voting locations for not just our town, but for Northwest Miami date county. Um, back to the
uh demolition. Did we find the number? That's the difference. 36. What What was the uh the first place? So the next one would be like one. No, no, no. The the lowest bidder. He wants to know who how much was the lowest bidder.
Lowest was 89,000. Got it. Okay. Um sometimes there's a saying. Um, and I'm not saying I don't and I and I definitely am not speaking on behalf of
Councilman Garcia. Sometimes people bite off more than they can chew. Let's just make sure that that's not one of the situations here. Um, and other than that, I yield back. Councilman Harrisburg. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Uh, I just the
same sentence. This is not a large demo job, so I don't know why it would take so long to get a bond. And I I have the very same concern. But then if we have to go to the second bidder and they're not ready, we're talking about months. So what I would say is if this guy's not ready, tell us. So maybe we can even have a quick meeting to get the second
bidder approved because every single week, every single month we delay this project, it's going to cost us more and more money. You all you guys know that already. That's why I would ask um if it's possible within the next meeting to get a little bit of a better understanding of of a realistic
timeline. Are we years away from from from breaking ground? Are we 8 months away, 12 months away for for the actual construction of the bridge? I can share the schedule. We do have a schedule for that. He has Omar maintains a project schedule with all the different staff. Yeah. So, I would like to see
that and then you know if the next meeting you change it because we have a derm delay or something like that, I understand. Um but it is very concerning for not a large building that the contractor can't get a bond. that that's I I would start looking at that. I don't
understand that really what's going on. Obviously, in the whole procurement process, we did our due diligence. The uh the company that won the bid, they have a history of having performed on other projects, right? So, they have the history, they have all of the insurance requirements, they they met,
they checked off all the boxes, and obviously then they on top of that, they had the lowest price. So, we went through the entire process, the full due diligence. They weren't a guy in a bucket that just came with a hammer and says, "Oh, I can do it." No, they they have performed for other municipalities,
other I remember having that discussion with with us and my I remember I think asking that because we saw such a big difference between the highest and the lowest and that was my concern. But you guys mitigate mitigated that concern. But now that he can't get a bond that I mean listen, I'm not a demolition
expert, but this is not a big huge project that it's something that someone should be able to get in a week. It's a big concern. All I'm saying is I don't want to delay it more. So, if if if we don't see it happening, I don't even know if we want to delay it till the next meeting. I don't know what we're going to do, but maybe even try to bring
it on to something, but uh it's just a concern. If I may add, like I mentioned earlier, the the for projects is not it's not unusual, but it's not the the common for it to take a little longer in some cases to get a bond. It has happened before in
some of our drainage projects. um and the contractor has been able to get the bond and execute the project and and complete the project eventually. But like you mentioned, we'll make sure that that we ask those questions again, make sure there are no surprises.
Yeah. And and then again, if if you can share maybe at the next meeting or or soon your your current schedule and then obviously I know that's will be in flux based off what you got, it's fine. I I that that I can share through the Yeah, we'll email it. We'll email it in the next day or two. Okay. Great. Thank you to the chair.
Well, I'm I know I just really quick instead of emailing it to all of us, I would I would uh I would like in your report to us that project, you know, where we are, what we've done, you know, just every single month we get
together in a council meeting, just add that to your report. Tell us where you are with the schedule percentage wise, uh and in the different areas where we at. So then we can just talk about it right here if you don't mind. What I have is just the the schedule we
prepare for engineering purposes. It's a Microsoft project schedule is it's a gang chart. So I can provide that. Oh yeah, you can quickly bullet point it. We're here. We're at 10% 30% 40%. Yeah. Yeah. Just so we it has a percent completion. So
we can compare and then we can just contrast if we're making progress or not, you know, for our edification. Thank you. Okay. A uh any other council members on this item? Okay. Uh seeing none. Well, Mr. Manager, did you want to say something or No.
Okay. No. All right. So, with that, I I guess we're going to move on to a Yeah. Omar, don't go far because I'm going to probably need your help for some uhme uh input. So, the future storm water uh infrastructure. This was as a result of a new business item that was
introduced by council member Fernandez a couple months ago and asked us to report back. And it is I wouldn't call it premature, but it is uh early in the process. We're still finishing up projects with the um with the current bond and the ARPA projects, but it is
good to start looking early at uh possible funding sources for uh storm water projects for once those uh projects are done with the current bond and the uh the um the ARPA projects. So, we we're just going to look here real
quick at the program goals, talk real briefly about the master uh storm water master plan and the rate restudy and historical and current funding project highlights and then preliminary future funding uh options. So, the goals of the storm water program
is to reduce erosion and swailes to protect infrastructure to improve flood resilience in vulnerable areas and to enhance efficiency and performance of storm water systems. So the first step in this whole uh process is the storm water master plan.
Uh it's a guide for long-term investment in storm water infrastructure. There's been three updates to date. Update number three and the rate restudy identified $54,600,000
in proposed uh projects in 2020. That was the last update. Update number four is scheduled to be done in fiscal year 2526 uh under the supervision of the public works department. Together with that that's really they're
uh studies that are usually coupled together. The second part of that is going to be the storm water rate restudy. The storm water rate restudy was completed following the last update. It ensures the current rate structures are aligned with infrastructure needs
and identifies financial sustainability gaps and supports datadriven decisions for funding and policy adjustments. So looking at our storm water plan highlights, uh this map, I know it's small, but it's colorcoded so it may be
easy to to to see. Uh our previous bond program uh we had 14 projects 10 of which have already been completed. Four are currently in construction. The funds that the council appropriated from the which were the all the funds
from the American Rescue Plan uh allocation there were 13 projects allocated uh to the American Rescue Plan uh uh funding. Three of them have completed, five are in construction and five are in design. Obviously we also
from time to time uh use grants. We have seven projects uh with uh that are grant funded. Five are completed. Uh one is in construction and one is in design. So the historical funding since the last
update so since 2020 uh we've had total funding between all the programs all three programs of $ 38 million. So considering that the last update identified $54 million worth of funding, uh you math will tell you that there's
approximately $16.6 million worth of unfunded projects that are left over from the previous update. Uh we issued a storm water bonds in 2021 of $18.2 million. Uh an in a change in the uh
storm water fee is what funded the debt service on those storm water bonds. We had $15.5 million allocated from the American Rescue Plan and the council uh elected to dedicate all of that money towards storm water. And we've had
grants uh totaling $4.2 million and those have come through uh state appropriations as well as the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and FEMA which all have storm water uh grant programs. So looking forward
the future funding for the program uh to meet any identif any needs identified in storm water update uh four as well as looking at the ones that were not funded uh from update number three. We can use general fund with or without a
millillage change, new storm water bond issuance, or just relying on securing grants and state uh appropriations. So, if you look at paying out of the general fund, there's really uh two options. If we were to fund the uh the
pieces that are missing from a millage rate adjustment, you it would probably call for an increase in the millillage of. 2243 mills, equivalent to 10% increase from today's flat rate. That'll derive $1.1 million a year for debt
service of $28 million in new storm water bonds. If we elect to just fund it from the general fund with no millage increase, then obviously it will require a reduction in current service levels and uh cuts to other areas of this
general fund budget. If we were to consider new storm water bonds, uh there's a couple different options with regard to how to uh pay the debt service on that. Option A would be to increase the current storm water fee.
The the rate study following update to the storm water plan is what will tell us what the uh change would require. Uh currently we have um well we would require a uh a change in the storm water fee to $15.75
per eru as I probably explained to some of you um in the 101 briefings. An eru is every residential unit counts as an eru. All of the commercial industrial it's a formula. It's an algorithm and
its formula is based on imperous square footage. So, by changing the uh storm water fee from $10.50, which is what we currently have, uh up to $15.75, that will yield an additional $1.1
million a year for debt service on $16 million in new bonds, new storm water uh bonds. uh we could increase and one of the options would be to look at the funding through the FPNL franchise fee if it were to I know there's another item on tonight's agenda
uh dealing with the FPL franchise fee but looking into the future if a portion of an increased FPL franchise fee which is based on electrical consumption uh were used 1% increase so one of those percentage points would generate about
half a million dollars a year that would yield about $8 million in new bonds. Obviously, 1.5% would yield about 750 and it would give us $12 million in new bonds. Currently, the FPNL
uh billing uh has 10% hurricane sir charge that they currently have on everybody's bill. That sir charge that was as a result of the two large storms that hit the southwest coast of Florida a couple years ago. Those are set to expire now at the end of December, which
is an opportunity to uh look at this funding mechanism. Finally, the final option to consider would be some type of a combination or hybrid model where you would look at both the FPNL franchise fee as well as adjustments in the ERU in the storm
water fee. uh that combination of a one and a half percent increase and dedicated from the FPL franchise fee towards retiring uh new bonds uh and uh increase of $525 per eru and the storm water fee. That total would generate $28
million uh in uh to retire $28 million worth of bonds. And obviously that can be issued in multiple uh issuances if we were to rely on grants and state and federal appropriations. Obviously
that's more of a question mark, right? So those uh revenues on a year-to-year basis are very difficult to forecast and predict, but it is an option that uh the town was using before n 2019 2020 and it may be an option for the town to
consider as a funding mechanism moving forward. And that's it. So if any of any of you have any questions regarding that and like I said, this is a preliminary discussion. It is probably a few months before any decision- making has to happen. Councilman Fernandez,
I think it's it's it's pretty clear that the federal government because they've cut FEMA and a lot of their funding, we're we're probably not likely going to get funds from them. And we don't know what the future holds, but I think that we should keep that in mind that it's not likely. Yeah, FEMA is one of the grant programs.
The other grant program that uh we access is the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, but they even I think derive some of their funding from the federal government. Um we also rely on state appropriations, but as you saw, state appropriations usually, you
know, we may have a 20 to to $30 million problem if you want to define it as such. um and the state appropriations on a good year, we may get a million dollars towards drainage. So, there are some people that have flooding in front of their houses, if we relied solely on
on appropriations and grants, we may very well have to look at them and say, "You may have to wait 20 years to get your flooding problem resolved." So, that's why it's it's good for this council to start looking and start devising uh ideas from the staff's perspective. We'll continue this
conversation and be uh in the coming months down the road, we'll continue to bring you this this information and and keep putting it before you so you can consider uh different alternatives. Councilman Sanchez. So I have two questions with regard to slide 16. You're you're stating increase
the millage by 2243. So that's in addition. So that would take it from 2.07 to 2.29. Correct? Yeah, that was based correct on today's fiscal year 2425's U millage rate. So yes, there it didn't take into
account any changes or potential changes for next fiscal year. Okay. And then the second question is the eru the going from 1050 to 1575. Is this on the quarterly the the 575 the 525 difference? Would that be that's a monthly rate
even though the water bill comes once a quarter not every month? That's a monthly rate Omar. Right. Yes, this bill once per month. So if you look at your your quarterly bill, you'll see three times the amount, three or per month. Yeah. And if you look at that page 17, council member, page 17, we kind of
looked at what uh other municipalities uh are charging around Miami Day County. M the two columns in the center that are blue, those the one on the left would be our current rate and the one on the right would be if we were to consider raising it to the 1575 what it would
look like. So it would be more on the high end countywide but not way there are some that are double and triple ours. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Any other comments through the chair? Council member Garcia.
So uh Mr. manager, just just to clarify the 50 some odd million dollar total infrastructure, that's what we identified that we need. We've already gone through more than half of that. 36 million of the 36 million. Absolutely. We prioritize
the the first projects, right, to focus on the the streets and the areas that are mostly in need. Correct. Okay. what you're proposing is to continue that uh u I guess the same u speed of of completion right uh to
continue this to finish all the projects that were identified originally this is and the timeline originally yeah these are a couple ideas on how to do that I mean and when when you say speed the last this last program took you know it's taken five years right and we're coming close so you can probably
look at it at a five to six year window for this kind of thing no I know because you mentioned 20 years and I just uh I no if we were to rely on grants alone or appropriations, right? If we're looking at half a million to a million dollars on an annual basis, it's going to take
us a very long time to get through um the the the need that exists today. Sure. The the option that I did not hear though is we do have the option to spread out what's remaining over a longer period especially the areas that
are not I mean they all flood but there are some that are more important than others like we prioritize but we can spread out those projects a little bit longer right and yes it would take a little bit longer but we wouldn't have to consider raising franchise fees and and and you know
water fees and things like that is Is that another option we have? Well, I I guess that would be the option of uh relying on state grants and state appropriations and FEMA grants. That would exactly be that. But it would be well not not totally. What I mean is
instead of completing three or four projects yearly or five projects yearly, six, seven, whatever it takes to continue that cadence, we slow it down a little bit. We continue to of course we want grant money. We're going to we're going to ask our partners. We just saw an amazing an amazing awarding of over a million dollars. So that's going to continue to happen. That's not going to
stop. Yes. Right. Hopefully. my you know what I'm just thinking is the other option we have and I just want to make sure you know the residents and ourselves up here and and and yourself as a staff know we also have we can stretch it out a little bit more and it'll take a little longer but
it's not going to put us in that uh the same place where we're going to have to raise water fees and and and and again raise franchise fees and again all these raising of fees are continuing to add up and I don't think there's an appetite for that at all. So if we stretch it out a little bit more, wouldn't that behoove
us to try to stretch out the the the cadence to a longer time period? We still get it done. We get it done in a longer time period and we don't have to increase fees on an annual basis. Is that's my that's my thinking. I'm just thinking out loud for my colleagues. The current storm water fee that's that
we collect that's at $10.7 or $10.50 50 cents uh um a month per eru that goes right now there's a large portion of that that's already dedicated to retire the bonds that we already issued that we're almost done with the
projects those bonds are 30-year bonds so that debt is going to exist for it still going out it also funds all of our operations like it funds uh some of the salaries that are dedicated to the storm water operation it's it uh funds the vacuum
truck. It funds the the lease on the vacuum truck. If it funds a So, I think that at the end of the day, there's a small portion on an annual basis that's a lot that that uh Omar budgets for from the storm water fund to uh to exist for
local matches. So, a lot of those grant programs require a local match. And you you heard the conversation last week when we met with the representatives from the state offices that local matches it helps us get state appropriations, right? So he has but it's what like half a million dollars a
year in available for local match over and above all your operations and the retirement of the stormwater bonds. A quarter of a million dollars. Yeah. So no, I get there's not there's a the chance we might lose. So without an
adjustment there plus you know no I get I get it I get it but there is an option of course to work it out and just spread the cadence out a little longer extend the timeline yes we might lose some some appropriations but the
the alternative is to raise these these fees right so I'm just I'm trying to find different options and you know you gave us option A option B option C I'm adding option D right uh so I just want you know just start thinking in that in that general. Council member, do you want to make a
motion to have him come back with what that item would look like? That's a great idea. I would like to move that we if you don't mind, sir. Yeah, I'll second it. Any discussion? Hearing none. Those in favor say I. I. Those against say nay. Motion passes.
On to item 8, sandbag storage area. Director Bun. I try to say it the way it's spelled. Badun. Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council. Jeremy Bdon, director of parks and recreation. Essentially, the report you have in front of you comes on the heels
of the direction from the council to look at long-term solutions to better maintaining our storage yard, especially with regards to our emergency management operations that are housed there. That is our sandbag storage location. Uh it's just what is that just north of the
basketball courts. Uh so essentially the report looks at both a hard roof type of structure that can be built there as well as a soft canopy shade structure. Um looking at both to cover the entirety or the vast majority of the entire maintenance yard. Um so roughly 55 by 65
ft. Um and then you have the two options there laid before you. Any questions? Uh, if no one else has any comments, I'll just say when we say come back to us with options, this is exactly what we're talking about. Thank you very
much. This is very detailed. It gives us a lot to consider when we're able to actually pick this up depending on budgets in the future. Um, but thank you very much. It's very detailed. Thank you. Any other comments, Council Member Garcia? Through the chair. Um, no. I I I was at
the event that we saw the the deterioration of the sandbags because of the sun. And I just have to ask a blue tarp over the over the I mean is that how expensive is that? We had blue tarps over them and then during rain events during wind they came off and that's where we lost some of
them. So some of the ones that are half gone but still have some sandbags had a blue tarp over them at one point. So currently we had actually I worked with Omar to look at what kind of construction companies use to kind of close off some of their their pallets and so forth. We're currently using that right now to cover the existing uh sandbags that we still have.
I and I would I would actually go that route because honestly this is great and this would do the job, but looking at the prices right now, I don't think we we have that ability over the next couple years to do this. So, I would just ask if just ask your staff to if
they can add to their their checklist of daily duties. Hey, check the sandbags. make sure the tarp is there even after rain events, you know, and how can we do what can we do, you know, how long maybe we can the event sandbag filling days could be closer to hurricane season or
whatever, you know, whatever we can work it out. Yeah, we'll work with our grounds crew to put it as a part of their grounds maintenance checks. They can go by the storage yard and go ahead and check that on a routine basis if we and we can provide them the same wrap that we have right now. So, if they do need to make any touch-ups and cover back up, they can do so. Yeah, cuz that looks great. It's just a
we just there's no way we can afford that right now. But thank you so much, sir. Thank you, Council Member Garcia. Thank you, director. Anyone else? Seeing none, uh we'll move on to the item number nine, attorney's report. All right, we're going to double team
this one. Um I'm going to handle part of it. Lorenzo's going to handle the other part. Uh the the first one's the blasting. Uh I'm kind of trying to keep that between us uh for right now. Uh strategy-wise, we're talking to each of
you separately and if obviously if any of you have questions, you know, reach out to us separately. Uh we have been working, believe me, we've been working and doing and strategizing and thinking and meeting and everything else as as as a legal team. Uh but I'd like to discuss
that with you separately, not in a in a public form. Uh the the case against Becker, that case is on a contingency. Uh that's where we're trying to recoup part of our expenses on all the busy litigation. It's in the
pleading stage. There's motions to dismiss. There are novel theories. The judge sent it to a uh special master. Uh the special master ruled uh in our favor on some things, not in others. Uh we're strategizing on that, but the case is
going forward. Um litigationwise, I think that's it. Um, you know, I can't think of anything else that that that we have going and then Lorenzo is going to handle the rest of the agenda. Yeah. The the only other item uh to I I
know that we've discussed this before you is is the uh matter uh that uh with the resoning and uh the the applicant uh that is is being solved uh administratively and it's moving forward. As far as the reasoning is concerned, you will be seeing that in second reading uh coming this coming
month. uh it's still progressing uh and it's it's been pretty much finalized. Um the zoning is going to come back essentially very similar to what you saw in first reading and that kind of dovetales into uh things that happened this year uh in the state legislature that you all need to know because it
does impact kind of what we can do as as a governing board. Um one of the bills that was passed was SB80. SP 180 uh is an emergency uh management bill uh that puts certain onuses on municipalities as
far as uh when a hurricane comes and and as far as uh the uh permitting of uh of of buildings and and permitting of um repairs uh after a hurricane. But the legislature in their infinite wisdom uh placed in there a a provision that
states that uh any u thing anything any uh change to a comp plan or to a zoning uh that was more restrictive than existed prior to August 1st 2024 uh is void abitio for a period of 5 years. Uh so there's nothing that luckily there's
nothing in our code that we've done that's more restrictive. Uh but there's nothing that we can do going forward uh that would create something more restrictive uh that the uh state legislature has specifically preempted uh us as a governing board from from doing you had a question councilman.
Okay. Um the other ones that I just want to add to that is uh there were one of the positive changes were changes to microobility ordinances. Uh it gave a lot more difference uh to local governments uh to be able to pass uh local legislation regarding the age that microobility devices. These are the
scooters that we see on the streets. The electrical bikes uh require safety equipment uh to be added onto them. Uh also where these microbilly devices can be used and I think that's a positive because that's a step forward on a bigger issue that we have which are golf
carts and we continue lobbying towards that. So I'll be bringing back some legislation, some tweaks to suggest to our local ordinances to make that uh more more stringent. You have a question? Yeah, through through the chair. Um, is that going to give our police officers a little more teeth? Yes.
I'm seeing a lot of teenagers riding electric scooters all over the town and and there's been videos of them riding them recklessly. Yes. Is that going to give us more? The answer is yes. Okay. The answer is yes. It would be permit us uh to to arm our police officers if they see that kind of behavior and they're
able to to pro, you know, provide it. Do you find something from a new revolution ordinance? Something from us or we I I'll be preparing something for you for your consideration, working with the manager with staff uh and and obviously in consultation with the major on on making sure that we have those fines and
those provisions so that he can enforce that. Yeah, they're not only going to hurt themselves, but they're going to they're going to hurt somebody. So, we need to stop that as quickly as possible. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Council Member Garcia. Any other uh questions for attorneys? Council member Sanchez. With regards to micro mobility, is a state defining what
is and is not micro mobility? So microobility is defined in the statute and those are your electrical stu scooters, your electrical bikes, uh any of those type of electrical devices. They are not golf carts. Golf carts are defined separately. Uh in in Florida statute only electric bikes or just bicycles as
a whole. Bicycle is governed under a separate section. So electric bicycles are microobility. Yes. Okay. Regular bicycles are not. Um there's a few other items. Vice Mayor, if I just quickly just want to put on the record, uh also uh it changed um definitions of substance abuse treatment centers, also
known as sober homes, and how can that can be regulated. And again, we're going to be providing some tweaks uh to to our um uh to our ordinances. Also, with regards to plats, plats are not uh no longer being um can be approved by the governing board. They have to be
approved administratively. So, that's going to require uh a change in in our in our code as well. Um, and finally, I'm I'm I'm Oh, yes. The other one is with regards to syn synthetic turf. Synthetic turf is now allowed as a matter of right. Uh, but it has to have
particular types of materials. So, we're going to have to take a look at a revision also to our code. Was that the county or the state? The state. The state. The state preempted now local governments from synthetic turf. I love our small government. So, that's pretty much my report. Just to let you know, we'll be working with
local government on those and seeing what to the maximum that we can. Uh, Council Member Herszburg. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um, we we discussed it and I just wanted to discuss it up here. You know, we recently had a a public records request regarding social media. I think it's a
good idea if we all get together some sort of workshop or something so we get an a refresher on how we got to treat our social media accounts publicly, what's a public record, what's not, sunshine, all that type of stuff. uh especially the the archiving responsibilities and things like that. I
guess I think it's good that we all because I don't know it all. I think it's good we all get get some information from you to make sure we're doing it right. Yeah, I I I agree. Uh some of you have been hyper sensitive and and that's good uh on on on social media uh and making sure that the the public uh generally
knows that we are held to to sunshine. So sometimes if there's not a response, you're acting, you know, an abundance of caution and that's very good. that the do's and don'ts what what the councilman Hersburg is saying I think that's that's important uh and and understand also what you just mentioned that a lot of those u statements once you place them
uh they they can become a public record and so they're they're subject to certain retention policies and and it would be good to do a refresher and I can work with uh with Clarison communications to talk a little bit about how the retention policy works and what what our requirements are thank you councilman
thank you uh seeing nothing further I'll just uh make a comment comment for the benefit of those who are not attorneys. Uh earlier uh the town attorney mentioned the Becker litigation that it was on a contingency. So that's not going to cost the taxpayers any
additional funds. It is a percentage taken off of whatever we recover in that lawsuit. Correct. Correct. That that's what contingency means. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Moving on to committee reports. We'll start off with the public safety committee report. Thank you guys for
waiting so patiently, all of the committees. There you go. Okay. Good evening, Vice Mayor, Council, Town Management, Carlos Andres with Public Safety, joined by John Carlo. Um, as well, uh, before we we start our report, just a a little thank you to to the folks that have
really helped us this last year. It's been a very busy one. Want to thank our sponsors uh game day, Ernie Asai, Einstein Bagels, the Grahams actually think Ann Little's here u has supported our initiatives. Want to thank Deputy Amadore which has been a phenomenal non-
voting member to our committee. Um Captain Velmanio, committee member as well has been very influential with the fire department. Uh the communications department, Isabella has been wonderful with Dallas Clarisel Telego Kasamayor has done, you know, just did a ceremony this weekend for an event we had. Uh the
Miami Lakes Chamber has helped us on on multiple initiatives um and you all the mayor and the council for uh supporting us and uh our events and and publicizing them on social media. So as I mentioned earlier, the uh public safety committee has been busy this year. Uh you know, we start off the year
with human trafficking awareness month and you know that was uh something that we did at the uh chamber. Uh we were a spotlight speaker where we had someone come in and speak from the taking back girls organization as a spotlight speaker. Uh we had uh the phone and tech scam where we had uh the folks from uh
citizens crime watch which is a great essential resources that we have here in Miami day to present to the elderly affairs committee during their monthly bingo law enforcement awareness month. We're able to work with the chamber to have our major speak um as the main speaker talked about all the accomplishments we
had. They were very well received by uh the businesses uh present and thankfully the Miami Laker published all his all of our accomplishments on on public safety. Uh we did our public service announcement with 3054 police on social media. We reposted the golf cart safety on social media. Uh the lock it or lose
it. We uh posted on social media and the Miami Laker that was in an issue that was just published in July. Uh summer safety tips, something new we did this year, worked with the Graham Companies to talk about the four things that are essential to uh the folks here in the town. issues we've been coming through or or dealing with u you know the curfew
uh folks wearing helmets we're talking about electric bikes uh town attorney was speaking about that earlier uh trespassing and uh drowning prevention the uh we assisted the sheriff with the national night out was a success uh had a bike ride had some fun unfortunately the weather was not too too uh well
received that day we'll we'll do better next year but overwhel overwhelmingly actually much better than than the prior year um we're working now with something that was brought up by a prior chair, Lyn Moss, uh, which chairman uh, sorry, Councilman JC Fernandez spoke about one
meeting about getting folks to sign up for the text uh, emergency system to make sure when there is an emergency, people are all well connected. U, we had this weekend a successful event at station 64. Uh, mostly you were there. Um, it was wonderful. Uh we also
did something not public safety related but you know we're joined with uh Councilman Alex Sanchez for Paella for those folks in uh Miami Dade uh sheriff's and and uh you know sheriff's office and the fire department. Now future events things we have coming up uh we have 911 memorial
uh we have the annual recognition awards that we hope to have before you next meeting where they recognize one person for sheriff's office and the fire department for their service to the community. National Coffee of a Cop Day October 1st. Uh October is actually uh the promote fire prevention month. So
we'll be doing something with the fire department. Uh I was we were approached by JC Fernandez to work with uh the local HOAs and see how we can get Citizens Crime Watch more involved with them. And something that I'm here before you to ask uh your uh permission to to move through with and this is something
we've been working on as a committee since we we last came up here and reported to you all is a car show, Cars for Heroes. Now, this this event is not your typical car show. Why? Because this is the face of this car show is going to
be the sheriff's office and the fire department. So, uh with the the uh the support of the Graham Companies, uh we're able to secure a parking lot which is 15500 New Barn Road on Main Street. And this parking lot, I know it's hard
to tell by the addresses, but it's essentially it's a parking lot next to Novo. Um it's a nice newer parking lot, nice well lit. Um, it would be an event from 5:00 to 10 on October 11th. And essentially, why why this parking lot? Well, I've heard here during public comment about our merchants, right? We
need to help our merchants and and this is why we're doing it there. You know, this is going to be a good opportunity uh for the main street merchants to uh advertise their business and also those uh to enjoy bite after the car show. Um, we've worked with, uh, thanks to the support of Deputy Amador, we've worked
with, uh, the PBA to make sure we get some assets, uh, you know, from the sheriff's office, uh, you know, working on different things like cars that are wrapped, the SWAT car, helicopter, um, to be u, you know, put into the show along with the, uh, uh, the fire rescue to put some of their really cool assets
in the show as well. And, uh, they will have a section, there will be a section for food trucks, there'll be a section for for v for vendors. Now, the concern of the council and I know Mayor Diegas was mentioning was what is it going to cost the town? Essentially, what we've come up with and and this is included in
the report is uh estimated revenues and expenses. So, the revenues that we're coming up with is approximately 100 cars registered, which I think is pretty easy to get with the amount of feedback I've been getting from residents. If uh each of those cars pay $25, we're looking at
$2,500. We've set up three different buckets for sponsorships. First one is very popular probably for Miami Lakes Auto Mall. It's, you know, it's it's $700. Second one is $350. And the last one is your vendor sponsors. These are food trucks and and
and company tents. Now, I'm part of uh Business Network International here in Miami Lakes. I know people are excited about this to sponsor their business on there. Perfect example, we have Dr. Labrada, which is a dentist on Main Street. She's excited about it because it's practically in the same parking lot. And what we've come up with is
expenses here and before you. So you'll see that you know some of them are DJ video footage to you know record this event to to again get more of of our town you know publicity you know um uh you know and also the long you know the first responders
and other um you know items you see here which give you 4250. So the estimated profit estimated again I say is $1300. Now what's important to to note on there is that we felt as a committee that it would be a good deed because you know we
are turning a profit on this event and this is mostly for the record because of the DJ because this one DJ came through Power96 DJ um and he says look I'll do it for a discount. I'm a car guy. I'm super excited. He came at $600. Everybody else was $3,000 for this event. So we felt well you know what it
would be nice to donate $500 to um the love fund uh which is something managed by the PBA. What does the love fund do? The love fund essentially supports those folks that you know, you know, give the ultimate sacrifice in their line of duty, you know, supporting funeral expenses and their family and then
future education for their children and also um $500 to the fire union. So, this is the resil resiliency group to be exact. And essentially, they're they're supporting our our you know, folks that you know uh are going through mental you
know mental health issues with the fire department. And this is essentially something that we thought would be a nice way to pay back for those folks that are you know do so much for this community. So essentially I'm going to stop my presentation there because um you know I have other things to discuss but I think it's very important that we
get the support from from this this uh council so that we can move forward on this specific event through the chair. Vice Mayor Moretta. Thank you mayor. The event itself is a great event from everything I've heard.
Uh I have two issues. Uh the first one uh just to be clear, the cars that would be entered, is it just in general nice cars, classic cars, or is it limited only to law enforcement or first responder type vehicles? Great question. Thank you for that. So
we have 142 parking spots in that parking lot. Essentially, we're thinking about maybe um I want to say 20 to 30 spots are going to be isolated for police and fire to bring their SWAT trucks, whatever it is. And then the rest of the locations um it's set up
almost like four lanes and and the last lane is going to be which is closest to uh the Meetwok apartments that's going to be for food trucks and for vendor tents. Everything else those three lanes that remain are for law enforcement and fire and the rest show cars you know so
it would be you know your Miami Lakes car guy like myself putting his car in the show. Yeah. When is uh cars for cure? That's in April. April. So th this is well distanced from that but that is a concern of mine is the oversaturation
uh of the topic car shows. Uh obviously we have a long-standing history with uh cars for a cure and and the good stuff that they do. Uh so I do have that concern. Nonetheless, I do think it is sufficiently distanced where it's not like people are
uh feeling like it's too much. Right. But I will say the the main point that I have is I do feel that as a council we're almost forced to approve this. Um this event has already been not marketed officially but unofficially.
It would be a very bad look for us to to decline to move forward with this event. Um, and I just while I think that it's a great event and I would approve it no matter what based on everything you've said, um, because on its merits, it
deserves to be approved. Uh, I don't think this council should ever be in put in the position by a committee to be forced to approve an event. Uh I think that this should have come to us sooner prior to uh you know but two months prior to the event when it's there
shouldn't be a question of whether the council is going to approve it or not at a time where the date's already being thrown around uh publicly. So that that's my only uh two cents on it. Um nonetheless it will have my support uh for those reasons and on its merits.
Thank you. Councilman Sanchez and then Councilman Fernandez go down. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As someone that's been around the car show industry for for quite a while, back when even the the apartments are across the street, we used to do car shows there, too. Something that you are missing in the
expenses um is awards. Individuals that come to these car shows, they they expect to have some type of competition for an award. I would get a quote for awards and throw that in here into the expenses if they're paying to participate. They think that at the end they believe that there's a hope for an award
and through the mayor if I may. The uh VA customs Drew is actually sponsoring the awards. Oh, so it's an inkind donation. Oh, perfect. Okay. First of all, thank you for the work that you guys do. We appreciate it. Um the only thing I had is I'm going to challenge you to get that that police
car from the Rolls-Royce police car from Miami Beach. See if you can get that. Well, this has been Garcia. I just think I think it's a great idea. What's the actual uh proposed date again? October 11th. Octo October 11th. Okay. Yeah, this is
great. I I I support it 100%. Um, also, you might want to have like maybe a little electric avenue uh with some electric vehicles. I've seen a lot of cool electric vehicles, nice wraps around here, especially some cyber trucks. Maybe get them in there. and some there's I don't know around here, but there's there's in other counties
there's police there's some police electric vehicles that are that are electric police. They're electric. Do we need to do a a motion to approve this or then then I would move that we approve this uh and uh get the ball rolling. I'll second it
before we continue. Any other uh comments? Councilman Herszburg. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, and first the manager or or chair or somebody clear you did come to us before with the car show idea. I remember specifically saying I would approve it as long as it didn't cost anything. Right. So I think
we sort of contingently approved it. Uh, and this is the first time you're coming up to us saying it's not costing me anything. Um, and maybe that's something we can it's only coming up I guess two months before. Obviously would have been better to see it a little bit earlier maybe, but I know there's restrictions on how quickly you can come before us.
Um, but I I think the event's great. I think you the committee's been doing a great job getting people out there and that's something I want to add. I I understand wanting to donate to other good good you know causes, but keep in mind your committee is a good cause and
we're have an item now we're your committee's not most likely I don't think I'm not going to vote for it that your I don't think any committees are going to get much more money if any this coming budget. So, sort of like the special needs advisory board, their prime event goes to them and they can
use that money for their events and for their causes. So, while I understand and I'm not telling you to change it, that you should be providing, you know, provide a charitable donation, but if this isn't this is a successful event, I think it will be and it can be your main event. Think about it as an event to
provide money to your committee so you can keep doing the good work, you know, and you know, having the type of things like the like the firehouse, like the fire station open house and all those type of things. So, just keep that in mind. I'm I'm all for the event and you guys have been doing a great job. Anybody else?
Y keep up the good work. Thank you. So, I'm going to vote to approve this as well, but again, this is a tight budget year. I actually plan to go line by line on the committee budgets and we'll
probably be proposing some cuts to some of those committees. I I agree with the vice mayor as well, and this is not just your committee. I've had this discussion with other committees in the past where they basically try they surprise us with an event, right? And again, also kind of put us in a position where it's a bit
awkward to vote no. And that upsets me very much because that's the tail wagging the dog, right? I think what the committees need to always remember is that while they are volunteers, they are ultimately serving at the pleasure of the council and that they work for the council and the town in general, right? Um, so I'm going to approve it. Again,
it it seems as if you've done enough leg work to make this not be uh to be costneutral to the town. I definitely want to make sure that we get them to that point. Um, and so that will be a criteria I will use for the future for next year um, as far as whether this
event continues. But for for now, I'm going to go ahead and and approve it. But just be mindful though and and again, I had this discussion with multiple other chairs in the past that they need to make sure that they communicate in advance with the council before they do anything. Um, but with
that said, all those in favor say I. I. All oppose, no. The eyes have it. Congratulations. Thank you, council. Um, and I'll definitely be mindful of that. I know we agreed at the end of the summer, so I'm a month late. It's been a lot of leg work. Uh, but thank you so much to this
council for your support. Congratulations and and uh and thank you as well for all your efforts. I know that again, as I mentioned, Saturday, you have been trying to give new life to the committee and I and I deeply respect that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the compliments. Um, Madame Clerk, if you don't mind, so this this that she's
going to pass out, just to be a little more clear, this is we're talking about budget here. Um, the fiscal year budget that we have now that you all have approved this, essentially what I'm requesting this council to do is uh this document that the clerk is passing out,
the first column is the current budget. The way it's set up, what we're requesting is a reclassification. That way now going forward we have a category for town events which now you know we're gonna officially do one and then the donations which obviously is is
a zero line item because if that when that money comes in if there is a profit then it would go out. So we don't have that current setup right now. Again uh this is my first year as chair so just trying to clean up certain things. So um essentially again this is just a reclassification of some items and
hopefully I can get your support through this. I would actually prefer to see those town events broken up by the specific event. I know other committees do that and it also allows us to better understand which event is costing what uh instead of throwing into a general category. Um, so I think that would be
the the best way to go about it for, you know, transparency and accountability purposes, right? Just like our residents always hold us accountable when they see a line item that is very vague u because it's it's very broadly named and then, you know, they they want us to parse out, you know, what specifically is in there, you know, so that they can better
understand it. So the same I think applies uh here to me. Are you asking for us to approve this sort of structure tonight? If I'm not mistaken, has the committee voted on this already? Yeah. Yes, it has. We've essentially it's the same uh approach that you have here in the uh committee report that we
voted on as presented in the committee. But what I've done here is to essentially show a more transparent setup to show exactly where it is right now on the budget which is on the uh the agenda tonight. Uh it's that first column and then the proposed is on the on the right hand side. To your point,
the town events can be broken out if that's okay with finance. I have no problem. Absolutely. Do it by event. And has the committee submitted their proposed budget already to staff? The proposed budget for fiscal year 25 26 we have. Okay. So a and what you're looking for
us to approve is just the reclassification. Yes sir. Okay. Because again I I I just want to be clear council again we haven't set the budget yet for the for the committees this year. And um again if it's just
about the reclassification you know then that's fine. I'm I'm I'll move it to go ahead and allow them to have additional line items related to these town events, but again, I want it broken down by specific event um instead of one general category for town events. Um so that would be that would be my motion. And again, that's not approving
or authorizing any particular um uh dollar amount being moved around. This is specific to just uh their request on how to reclassify or to classify um you know, new line ite line items into their budget. Is there a second? I'll second. It's been moved and seconded. Any
discussion? Yeah, sorry, Mr. Vice Mayor. I just literally I'm sorry. I don't understand what we're approving. They they uh so they're asking for permission to go ahead and have uh se a bunch of new classifications in essence
uh uh for town events in their budget, right? And I I'm I'm assuming that's them trying to get ahead of the approval they will need. Um because right, it's u Mr. manager whenever they move more than $700, they have to come to us for approval. Yes, because I'm only authorized up to
$700. Got it. So, so I guess what they So far, yeah, that is something we can have a conversation about before we approve the next budget. Nah, but but um I did want to or rather I think what they're looking for is just
for the next year's budget to be able to have these categories available to them um you know to so they can move money in, you know, into town events. But uh if uh we're voting if we vote yes on this am I approving it with the the dollar amounts? No. That's why it's excluded. No with the town events line or would it
be No, they would have to parse it out. Okay. So approval of this motion includes a breakdown. Yes. Okay. That's what I want to know. Yeah. It's not authorizing a broad town events thing. It's just giving them permission to add additional line items related to town events, but it has to be broken down by event. Can I make a recommendation?
No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Mr. Manager, go ahead. That's good. Um, we're not really uh approving the budget tonight. So, my recommendation would be to approve this in concept, but
to have them work with the liaison and provide the broken down town events and bring it all down and then we'll present it to you that way when we uh deal with the budget with this new setup and that's exactly and that way you could approve it uh down the road when we get to the budget hearings.
Yes, it's exactly what's being proposed. A any any other comments? All right, seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. All oppose, no. The eyes have it. The motion carries. Anything else, Mr. Chair? Council, thank you so much. Town manager. Appreciate your support. Thank you for coming by. Next up, uh I
don't know if there's a representative of the mental health task force. Any representative of the mental health task force here? All right, then we will move on to the sports hall of fame committee report. Welcome uh the at the bottom of the mic uh
you'll see a button. There you go. See, I don't know why they sent me tonight. No. So, good evening. Um my name is Mary Moa. I've seen most of you at at different events. Um but tonight I'm representing the Miami Lake Sports Hall of Fame. I'm actually the vice chair and I was inducted in the class of
2020. So, I'm happy to be here. Um, what you're going to see in front of you is we met on July in July to make our selection for our new 2025 induction class. I believe that you have the snippet in front of you. So, our
recommendation for the eighth class of our Miami Lake Sports Hall of Fame should be in front of you. Um, when we break it down, we usually have a community builder. So, somebody that's been very involved in the community, which you'll see is Don Bailey Jr. I
think he is um his name speaks for himself. Um we also usually do a coach and an athlete. And if you notice right here, if you if you're looking at them at the people that we have selected, you'll see Joe
Weber. So I learned a lot about him. Um those of us, even though I grew up in Miami Lakes, my parents still live in the same house 47 years. um in Miami Lakes. I did not know and realize that we have people here who started the first president that started the Miami
Lakes Optimus. I think people from the past should be honored. I think um we all discussed it and how much sports is a part of kids' lives here in the town and what they put back into the optimist. We think that's very important. So he was like without a
shadow of a doubt he was in um you'll see Rivers Dembi and again community builder coach comes back gives um back to the community host clinics um he is very well-known coach for Columbus he's
got many multiple wins so he was another one and of course the more that I push since I'm the only female here is um a female athlete and that is Karina Sid. So even though she went to Goldman, I'm a HMO girl. I said, "Okay."
Oh, so she stayed in Miami Leagues. She All right. She stayed in my place. Well, well, I want to I want to congratulate you on being the bigger woman. Thank um so yes. So those are our recommendations. So tonight, what we're just doing is we're seeking your
approval. Our event is December 13th. Put down your little phone calendars. Um it's just a night nice outdoor event um where we bring it. We do have the letters for you mayor. We like to call we usually do like a video conference call and we try to like get them on the
phone and the committee um acknowledges them, congratulates them on their honor and then we like to mail the letter from the mayor to congratulate them for being officially inducted into Miami Lakes 2025 Hall of Fame.
Council, is there a motion or any questions? There's no fiscal impact to the town since I keep hearing that. This has been so exciting to chair. So, there's no no budget. I have to talk with you through the chair.
Councilman Garcia, thank you so much for doing this and the many years. I mean, we have so many a lot of history here in Miami Lakes and and Yeah. and from, you know, from people that have been doing it a long time to brand new participants and thank you, congratulations on being named in
2020. Um, no, I think this is one of the the the events that really highlight the history of Miami Lakes and and how Miami Lakes is always with the Optimus, starting with the Optimus has been a great supporter of of sports, be it, you know, from from this little league all
the way to professional sports and college sports. So, I I I think this is wonderful. I think the the selections are great and I move to approve. I'll second. All those in favor say I. I oppose. No. The eyes have it. The motion carries.
Thank you. I I I respect and honor you guys in those seats. I don't know how you do it, but thank you. Thank you very much. Mayor, do you mind if I give a madam clerk the Yeah, please give it to the clerk and she'll pass it along. By the way, teachers like you put us here.
Yes. All right. We are now on the items pulled for from consent. We're going to begin with uh going in alphabetical order 12E. Uh who is the council member that that pulled this item? Uh was a piggyback on right. Yeah. Okay. Councilman Hersburg.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My only question is uh and I'll I'll be very truthful here and I just want the I would like the benefit of the manager explaining it. I saw City of Miami. Um, so I I mean I we're just piggybacking on some random city of Miami contract. What is the
benefit of uh not procuring this ourselves, right? Why are we picking backing on a on a city of Miami contract? Uh that that's really my my biggest concern and that's why I wanted to to pull and have a vote on it.
Yeah. I mean, taking into account that really the only thing that city of Miami does well is put out good firefighters. But other than that, just kidding. Just kidding. If anybody from the city of Miami is out there, um really the greatest benefit, council
member, is the economies of scale. the large organizations, the city of Miami's, the Miami date counties, Broward counties, these large contracts, they can uh they can create, they can, you know, drive better pricing on almost everything that they go out. So, that's
why we can take advantage of that better pricing and be able to piggyback on their contract. They they have two vendors uh locally here that we can tap into. And obviously, this primarily will be for odds and ends on fencing. will be able to issue work orders on the spot.
Having this piggyback contract uh accessible to us if it's any large fencing project, anything over 25,000 would always have to come back to this council for approval. Would it make any sense to approve this, but also see what see go out to bid and
see what what the contracts would be anyway? And then maybe I that's what I'm trying to get. Why just trust I and I get it. We do it. We do it often. Yeah. and we approve it often and I want to understand why we keep doing it and not use you know we could approve this right
and also say by the way also go out and get your own procurement and see if there is see if there really is a difference if there isn't we'll move forward with with the lowest what's the benefit or or the or the negative of not doing that well I mean obviously it'd be good to just approve this like you say and then
if you'd like if the council directs us we'll go out and do a solicitation for our own fencing contract then we'll be able to compare other two we don't have to award on the other one if we go out and we see when the pricing comes back uh we have that option always whenever we do solicitations to award or not to
award uh so we can we can do that that we can do that yes so so my motion would be then to approve this subject to also asking uh staff to go ahead and do their own solicitation and come back to us to see if you know the piggyback does make sense
I'll second is there any further discussion Just quickly through the chair, Councilman Garcia. Now, the reason why they're giving us such a good deal is they've they have done a contract based on the amount of linear feet and the the cost per linear feat is is smaller. The vendors are not giving us the good
contract. The vendors are giving the city of Miami because the expectation is they're going to have a lot of work from the city of Miami. Now, we can piggyback that and take advantage as long as everything is, you know, the terms and conditions are exactly like the contract stipulates, we we can take advantage of the pricing and be able to benefit from
that. So, if if they are giving us a set price linear featwise, that makes perfect sense. Or are they giving us a price based on our project size and then scaling it? No, we don't have a project on the table. This is to have a a a ready to go
contract that if tomorrow we had a a need, we can tap into it. Yeah. We don't have a project right now on on the There's no fencing needed. Okay. So, there's nothing needed right now to be correct. This is by, you know, per linear feet or however they they they they price it.
Okay. Can I just through through the mayor? Very briefly, please. I apologize, but I just want to put this on on the record just for um the councilman's question. So you were asking for to accept the piggyback but at the same time to make a solicitation.
I mean so yeah I mean my my qu it's sort of like almost like an experiment right let's go crazy my my the point is we piggyback a lot right this is for something that's just for as needed if we need it right for under a certain
dollar point. My my curiosity is I understand city of Miami. Okay, it's a standard contract. I'm sure it's fine. I hope you know City of Miami is what I'm not go City of Miami is what draw me to this contract. I will I I prefer Appleton Wisconsin that we've done, you know, things like that that we've done
before. But my my curiosity is can we go ahead and approve it? If we listen, if we have something that we need next week, we have an approved contract, but why not also have staff go out and see if this is actually a good contract or not and and and go and look to see if they want
to have their own our own tell me that the legal issue is Well, no, no, it's just an it say that that we would do a a formal and for something like this and and Rosa, tell me if I'm wrong, we would probably do an ITB for something like like a like a
fence, which is the lowest, you know, price out there for for fencing. Uh and we'd have it as a standby contractor, right? So, are you suggesting that we accept this now for the moment in case we need it and then we also go ahead and prepare a bid and then if the bid eventually comes lower, then we go with
that bid and we cancel this contract. I I mean, yeah, I guess. Yeah, exactly. Or come back to us. But if you can just if it comes down lower, accept it. Yeah, of course. Because you know, one thing is just, you know, we're kind of we have to act in good faith is what I'm trying to say. So if if that's the the motion to see if
there's something better out there and just have this just in case we need it, especially since we're in hurricane season. Yes. That sort of thing. Exactly. Okay. Accept it now because we need it and let's see if there's something better. If there's nothing better, okay, we just keep stick with it. So that that is the idea of the motion. Thank you.
All right. All those in favor say I. I. I. All oppose? No. The eyes have it and the motion carries. We're now on item 12F which pertains to Councilman Fernandez. Uh so I'll let him introduce the item. We spoke about rights. Yes. I didn't
pull it. I know you didn't pull it, but you know, being that it's your item anyway, may go ahead and introduce it and then I'll go over to the council member that pulled it. So, what what I'd like to do, as I stated in in their I think it was our our previous council meeting, is to add
the protocol of asking for IDs after u 1000 p.m. is what I believe that we agreed on. 10 pm until 6:00 am. Um, that's it. Is there a second? It's been seconded and the the polling
council member was uh the vice mayor. Go ahead, Mr. Vice Mayor. I only pulled this out because I did feel that this was an issue that got a lot of discussion and I thought that it should be approved in the light of day, not quickly swept into the uh consent calendar. Uh, I support the item. Uh, and I thank you, Council Member
Fernandez, for for bringing it up. All right. All those in favor say I. I. All oppose, no. The eyes have it. Item 12F passes. Okay. We're now on the consent calendar. Mayor, I move the consent calendar. Is there a second?
I'll second. Um, all those in favor say I. I. All oppose, no. The eyes have it. The motion carries. And we are now Mayor point of order. You are recognized for a point of order. Uh, mayor, I'd like to move to reopen the order of business very briefly. Is there a second?
I'll second. All right. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. No. The eyes have it. Mr. Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to move uh to have item 16K, Zanta Club Use Facilities
move to the next available item uh for the benefit of our audience. Okay. Um with that uh all those in favor of the of the agenda as modified say or rather we need a second. Second. Second. All right, it's been seconded. All those in favor say I. I.
All oppose, no. The and the agenda is therefore modified by your vote. So with that, let's take up 16K. I'll go ahead and move to uh to wave the rule as it pertains to that item. Second. It's moved and seconded. Uh all those in favor say I. I.
Oppose. No. You guys have it. And the rule is waved. Um so let me turn over uh to this item myself. In essence, um what this is is that the Zanta Club of Miami Lakes would like to host an orientation at one of our facilities. They've done
this in the past. Uh however, a uh the town is suggesting that uh to for to make their lives easier um instead of having to constantly go through the process over and over again of applying to rent one of our facilities instead to enter into a license agreement. So, my
motion is twofold. first to give them immediate authorization to host uh their orientation that they have coming up um you know at Roberto Lonzo Community Center uh and secondly to go ahead and direct staff to begin discussions with the Zanta Club of Miami Lakes for a
longerterm licensing agreement uh that will help them to expedite some of these requests in the future. That is my motion. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Uh just very briefly, I want to get a little bit of clarification. Uh the the way you have it drafted here uh and I
did speak to the manager a little bit, but I just both sides are here now. Um the way it's written in your motion is or in your new business item is that they are now being required to pursue a licensing agreement. The way the manager explained to me is that it was suggested
to them as a benefit to them. Which one is it? uh because when I was first contacted by the Zanta Club, it's it it appeared to be a requirement and I was just trying to get this in before it was any later. Um obviously I was already after the MBI submission deadline and then on top of
that it it was just before the agenda was going to be published. Um so that was my my understanding of the issue they were encountering at the time when they reached out. Um, and obviously that we've gotten clarification since then that that it was being suggested as uh to make their lives easier, not
something they were required uh to do. Got it. I just wanted to make sure that they weren't facing some undue burden. Um, and I'll just say I obviously will support your item and and thank you to Zanta for everything you guys do in the community. Any other uh questions or comments? All right, seeing none, all those in favor
say I. I oppose. No. The eyes have it. Congratulations, Anne. You can please relay the good news to the Zonte Club. Thank you for being here. With that, there are no uh ordinances uh on first reading, but we do have ordinances on second reading which are
considered a public hearing. With that, Mr. Attorney, please read the first uh ordinance on second reading into the record. An ordinance of the town council of the town of Miami Lakes, Florida, relating to attached canopies for single family and two family buildings amending
chapter 13 land development code at article 5 allowable encroachments into the required yards and exceptions to the maximum permitted heights at section 13-506 canopies providing for repeal of laws and conflict providing for severability providing for inclusion into the code
and providing for an effective eight. I'll move the item. All right. I'll second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Oh, we need Oh, yes. That's right. So, before we we we get to the vote, um are there any members of the public wishing to speak
on 14A canopies allowable uh canopies allowable encroachments into the required yards? Seeing none in chambers, madam clerk, is there anyone online wishing to speak on 14A? No. Okay. Uh, with that, the public hearing is now closed.
A and now, council, again, any discussion? Seeing none, I'll just say that I I agree with the uh, planning and zoning board's recommendation. Uh, that being said, I will approve the item as it is today, but I would ask the staff to come back
with a little amendment later on. Uh that way this can get implemented right away to allow it to to uh allow the um the reduced distance from the main structure uh to accessory structures be reduced for all properties not just the smaller yards. Just bring that back
later. I can make that change if you'd like before it gets signed. That is something you can Am I right? Yeah. Is that right? Correct. Yeah. Okay. You can you can amend it here. In that case I I'll I'll just do an amendment. I would I would ask the legal
opinion on that. Can we He nodded. Yes, we can. That's not a substantial amendment that you're okay with that. Okay. Okay. Uh so in that case, you need it need to move as an amendment. Yes. Okay. So I'll I'll then move to amend it
amend the proposed ordinance uh pursuant to the recommendation of the planning and zoning board uh so that the reduced distance from the main structure to accessory structures be reduced for all properties not just the smaller yards. Is there a second? I'll second. It's been moved and seconded. Any
discussion on the amendment and only the amendment? Council Hersburg. I just need to understand what the amendment does. So because just so you understand Susanna take that quick recap. Right. Just so you understand my questioning. I did not want to vote for anything that gets closer to anybody
else's house. Right. No. Right. This is a there is one provision in the code right now where every um detached accessory structure um has to be at least 10 feet from wall
to wall or wall to column and then at least six feet from roof to roof of the structures. This is one of the most common variances we grant uh when we go to the planning board and those of you that have served on the planning board have heard these variance 300,000 times
where somebody build their canopy 6 feet away from their house instead of 10 or the 10 feet don't fit because then the canopy is very small. Um I think this was at one point an attempt to keep the two structures separate for fire reasons. uh that is not really a need
anymore because these structures right now are made of aluminum that is really fireproof and not necessarily a fire hazard. So that distance right now is really more about keeping the structure detached and making sure it's not the same as an attached structure.
So as long as there's some separation, we are already in the in the ballpark of reasonleness. um a reasonable separation is 6 feet from wall to wall and then if you add the two allowable overhangs uh 3 feet from roof to roof so that you see
some clear sky between the two structures and that's what we're allowing on smaller backyards less than 25 ft. Um the amendment is that this be allowed in yards that are larger than 25 ft as well. So even on larger yards, if you want to put your structure a little
closer to your main structure, that's okay. And again, 63 is closer to your own house, right? Not to your neighbors. Correct. So yeah, people want to do in their own house, that's fine. As long as you're not affecting your neighbors, that's all I care about. And even nothing in this
nothing in this ordinance allows anything to be closer to anybody else's property than five feet. Even in yards that are very small, we are allowing an attached structure that is never closer than 5T to anybody and is never covering
more than 20% of their rear yard or the rear uh yard. So this is not to allow ever, you know, overspread canopies. It's to to contain the canopy to a to a a reasonable shade structure. And 5T is not being changed. That's what
it is. Never. No, it has not been changed. So I'm all good then. Thank you. Anything else? All right. All those in favor of the amendment say I. I. All oppose? No. The eyes have it. The amendment is adopted. We're now back on
the main ordinance uh as amended. With that, any other uh comments left regarding uh this uh this ordinance? Seeing none, Madame Clerk, please call the role. Ordinance 14A, ordinance in second reading to approve. Council member
Garcia, yes. Council member Sanchez, yes. Council member Hzburg, yes. Council member Cuadra Garcia, yes. Council member Fernandez, yes. Vice Mayor Mora, yes. Mayor Diegas, yes.
Ordinance in second reading, item 14A passes. Excellent. Uh, Mr. Attorney 14B, parking requirements amending chapter 13, land development code at article 8. An ordinance of town council, town of Miami Lakes, Florida, relating to parking regulations, amending chapter 13, land development code at article 8,
parking requirements, providing for findings of fact of fact, intent, and purpose. providing for regulations, providing for repeal of laws and conflict, providing for severability, providing for inclusion inclusion into the code, and providing for an effective date.
Excellent. Okay. Um, so I'm going to let the staff go ahead and present the item and and uh and then we'll go to the public hearing and then to uh uh the council discussion. So, this is an item that was brought forth before the uh planning and zoning board. Uh there were several issues that
were discussed uh at that level uh and several since that we have done our our due diligence. Um we've believe at this point uh we we'd ask uh that this council entertain a motion uh to defer the item such time that we can come uh
back with better recommendations. Is there a second? I'll second. All right. With that, the only thing I'd like to put on the record is that for all those applicants that are out there though, since this is already moving in in first reading, they may be uh obliged to follow these these recommendations as it is at the zoning
in progress. Thank you. Okay. All right. So, with that, all those in favor say I. I. All oppose? No. The eyes have it. The item 14B is deferred. There are no resolutions and therefore we are now in new business items. We've
already uh we're going to begin with 16A flat committee budgets for fiscal year 2025 20 uh 2026 and postbudget town hall council workshop on committee structure which was combined earlier with 16N establishment of committee budget
workshops by vice mayor Morena. But we'll begin with council hersburg. Thank you, mayor. And uh you know, I I it seems like the vice mayor and I are on the on the same uh you know, brain wave wave right now on the on the committee works off. So, I'll let him handle that part. Maybe we'll bifurcate the motion.
Uh right now, I just want to give a clear direction to staff when they bring the budget up coming up that um it's my position at the minimum we should be having a flat committee budget uh flat in the amount that it was last year. I'm not ready to entertain any uh raises in
committee budgets and like you said, Mr. Mayor, potentially go line by line and and deduct some. I already have a few in mind. So, uh for the benefit of staff, I would like to make a motion to give them uh the direction to provide flat committee budgets, meaning the same amount that the committees were granted
last fiscal year for this fiscal year. And that's my motion. Is there a second? Okay. Excellent. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Council and then Councilman Garcia. Oh, okay. I saw you reaching for the mic. All right. Councilman Garcia,
just to clarify, Councilman, are you saying that um well, of course, we're not making that. They're we're going to start at the flat rate, right? And then make uh make our decisions in in the final budget process to see if there's other some count some um committees that
we need to cut more. There might be a committee, but we might add something. But in balance, you want to start start flat. I guess I just want to be really clear to staff that we start at what it was last year. I mean, unless someone says differently, I think that's should be our starting point and I agree and maybe with some savings from one
committee, you give it to another committee or something like that. But, um, it's just something to try to make the the next budget presented to us as as you know as accurate as possible from the will of the council. Right. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. With that, all
those in favor say I. I. All oppose? No. The eyes have it. 16A on the issue of the flat committee budgets passes. Vice Mayor Moretta. Thank you, Mayor. So along that line and I for the record, I I don't agree with a
flat budget, but I do agree with the flat budget as a starting point. I think that that's an excellent or not as a cap even, but as a starting point rather than as I mentioned in my in my new business item, we're being asked to fund $391,450
in committee budgets this year, which is a 91% increase over the last fiscal year. Um while these committees obviously play a tremendous role in enhancing our citizen participation, engagement, providing
important services, uh you know, think especially our our elderly affairs and the social programming that that provides. It's critical, but we the buck stops here at the at the dis and we're responsible for ensuring that our taxpayers dollars are used uh
effectively and efficiently. Um, and so during this budget cycle, I've made inquiries uh uh about these budget requests uh from these various committees. Not that our staff is unable to answer,
it's that it's cumbersome because it's a game of telephone. I ask the manager, the manager asks uh Melissa, Melissa has to find the liaison. The liaison needs clarification from some of the committee members. It's a game of telephone. Uh I think that we can circumvent this entire
thing sort of similar to how we already have a workshop for the the special taxing districts. We can have a uh sunshine meeting or or a workshop with our with the instruction um instructing
at at a minimum the the the chairs and a few members of each committee to show up and present their budget to us. And then at that time we can do exactly what the mayor was suggesting a moment ago which is go line by line understand what is being requested because during this
budget cycle what's about to happen is the mayor and myself and each one of us are going to go line by line without the benefit of having heard from them uh on what is important and what is not. Um so it also again
ensures that we are gauging what events are successful and important for our town and what events are not. I do think that there are some events on our events calendar that can probably be cut. Um meanwhile there may
be some that are underfunded. Um this all just creates a an air of transparency and b ensures a more uh efficient administration of our taxpayer dollars. So, I move for the establishment of a committee budget
workshop to take place every year starting with the 26 uh the the uh June of 2026. Uh for it to take place no later than June 1st uh sorry, no earlier uh than June 1st and no later than July
31st of each year commencing with 2026. Is there a second? Second. It's been uh Councilman Herszburg for any comments. Yeah, I guess I agree 100%. So that's my comment. Any other council members wishing to speak? Councilman Sanchez, if I can give a brief little uh
clarification to the reasoning for that timeline of June 1st and July 31st. I do understand that that is before we receive our our tax rule. However, it is my understanding that we do have an estimated tax rule. We have an idea of
what we're going to be receiving. we can start working on the by July 1st. Anytime in July, we would already have the tax. Correct. But but um Okay. Yeah, I that's right. I gave a a two-month period. I would prefer as early as possible. Um but I understand that some of the dates
that I provided are before that. I I think that that's irrelevant. Um but I wanted to make sure to say that that shouldn't affect our date. Councilman Sanchez. Uh this question is Mr. Ka. That's for you. With regards to the telephone that you spoke about earlier
about reaching out to the manager, is there a legal reason as to why we cannot reach out to committee members ourselves? You can we can speak with them directly without having to interfere with with staff operations. Correct. Thank you. That's all I wanted to know. Jeremy, are you here?
Yeah. Jeremy, get over here. With regards to some of the events, not all events that happen in town are through the committees like the skate that we do the the skate participation Miami Lake skate. So yeah, that's just an ongoing program essentially and we
label it as an event because it's once a month only. It's not every week or anything like that. So we list it as an event. Okay. The reason why I ask is because I've been to that event a couple of times and I think at most is what shows up is maybe two or three kids and it's it's something that we pay for. So, you
know, it's it's it's not a committee event, but I think there's also events that are run through the town that don't have great turnout. Yeah. The two big ones, but those are well attended is the Veterans Day parade and the Independence Day. Right. Right. But there's other things that maybe, you know, instead of taking
away from committees is events like that that the the turnout isn't great. I can I can take a look at the registrations. I know our registrants are always were almost filled 12 to 15, which is what we aim for. And I'll take a look at the total participant counts. Some have been low events, but then some
have also been 10 12 kids that interesting with instructors or it's it's a pretty good ratio for having instructors there and enjoying the event. But we can take a look at it longterm and look at the actual return on that on that uh program. Okay. All right. Good to know. Thank you. But I'm just using that one program as an example. Any other council members wishing to
speak before I uh give my two cents? Okay. Um so, Mr. Vice Mayor, unfortunately, I'm going to have to be a down on this and I'll tell you why. We used to do this actually for uh when I first started and the truth is that what usually came out of those meetings was
just them presenting a budget and it was it was information that you're going to get anyway by the time for example in our case now when we get to the August 27th sunshine meeting to go over the budget line by line and it just creates another meeting that staff has to attend
that that we have to attend and I do think that it you know to Councilman Sanch's point not only should we'd be reaching out to them directly um if we want to get the information, but it's also incumbent on them to argue for their committee budget request, right? So, they should be proactive in coming
to us. And and the truth is again, we it's I'm just doing this from what I experienced before that it just felt like another meeting um just to get information that we're going to get anyway. Um and you know, again, as far as their advocacy, they need to they're the ones that need to step up and and
argue for their budget. Um, but that's why I'm I'm I'm a no on on this. It just uh again I think they need to be the ones to step up and I know that this meeting affords them that opportunity, but um they should be doing it on their own. One, and two, it's just again another meeting that we're going to be taking on and you know a and while I
understand the time frame here too, we actually I believe we used to do it in May even or June. Um and again, we don't have complete numbers and we still are are are working on finalizing the budget per what I remember the budget director mentioning. So, hey, for that reason,
I'm I'm a no, but I just wanted to let you know uh why. Any other uh comments? Okay, seeing none, madam clerk, please call the role on this one. Motion for the committee workshop to take place every year starting for the
budget 2026 with the dates provided by Vice Mayor Moretta. Council member Garcia, yes. Council member Hzburg, yes. Council member Cuadra Garcia, yes. Council member Fernandez, yes.
Council member Sanchez, yes. Vice Mayor Moretta, yes. And Mayor Diaz, no. Okay, the motion passes. Whoops. All right. Okay. So, we are now on item 16B, alternative revenue source,
uh, FPL or FLP, apparently, uh, franchise fee by Councilman Fernandez. uh on the agenda it was FOP because on the Yeah, on the memo it's got it. Okay. So, thank you. Thank you, uh, mayor. So, I'm I think that it's
clear that a lot of the residents have reached out to us and I think that there really isn't an appetite to raise the millage rate to the the max the cap that we sent that we set. Um, I'm I'm trying to find different ways that we can generate some funds. We're going to have
a shortfall this year. I don't think that anybody can argue that. Um, and I'm hoping to get it to as close as we can to the proposal from the management. But that said, I look at this fee as more of a consumption or usage fee where um if
you can't afford to to run your AC, you know, 12 hours, 20 hours a day, then you just lower, you know, you raise a thermostat. Uh, in my in my eyes, that's the way I'm looking at it. Um I think uh my the motion is to direct staff to
bring back a a resolution at the first budget hearing. Um to increase the franchise fee from 3% and 6%. Um we we also know that we are going to have that the 10% that is now being added to it will be dropped. I think uh the manager
mentioned it earlier as well at in December at the end of December. So that is part of my motion. And the other the other part is um to request staff uh to present an ordinance in the first reading at the first budget hearing modifying the surplus FPL franchise fee
ordinance suspending the ordinance for one fiscal year to allow the entire additional 1 and a.5 million to be used in the general fund for town operations. That said, it's important to note that I would also ask to still allocate the
approximately $225,000 in the surplus franchise fee for the appropriation of infrastructure since that is what it is now uh as the ordinance reads is now a requirement. I second stated.
All right. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Counc Garcia. Thank you. And I I appreciate this item. Um, Councilman, I understand your thoughts. Um, I just want to let my
constitu I mean constituents, the residents, and also us know that FPL this year requested through year 26 to 29 over $4 billion increase in in rates. Now, I know you mentioned that 10%'s
going to go away, and it is, but they apart from that, they requested a $4 billion raise in in prices for FPL for for for electricity bills from 26 to 29. Now, they just made a deal with the with
the state uh prior to the hearing, and they made a deal that they weren't going to go for the four billion, but the actual the amount that they made that deal with is not public yet, but they people estimate it's going to be around 15 to $20 more monthly in electricity,
which could add up to depending on how much you use, thousand kilowatts, uh $10 to $15 per thousand kilowatts, depends how big your house is. I mean, honestly, it could be hundreds of dollars a year uh for residents. Um I liked opening up
the the putting everything in the general fund and keeping that 225,000. Was it 225,000 for the for the infrastructure? Correct. Yeah. Keeping that there, but opening it up for everything goes to the general fund. And I would honestly I would
rather the priority be police our our police budget go first. Uh, I mean, make sure that's fully funded, but keeping it open in the general fund and then we can move those those dollars over to to the police budget. Is that a possibility?
I'm not sure if I understand the franchise fee. Can it when it goes to the general fund? Right now, it all goes into the general fund, but it it is but it's specifically only only a piece only everything over 1.275 million is dedicated based on the ordinance that you have in place right
now. So I'm for removing that ordinance. Yeah. For the for the year and keeping it open. So it all goes to the general fund, right? Instead of the 225 staying in infrastructure. Well, that 225 can stay in infrastructure, but the rest should just be go to the general. It already does. It already does that now. All right. Then then I then I would recommend everything go to the general
fund so we can move that money to police to the police budget. We have that ability to to be flexible. But are you I just want to be clear. Are you saying not to raise it to 6% or Oh, absolutely not raise it to 6%. No. So just the really what you're advocating for I just want to be clear
is the 1.5 million that we're going to get at 3% have it all go to general fund and none of it go to the 225 for infrastructure. Well the amount that it takes to cover the shortfall in the police budget.
Well there's no real shortfall in the police budget. There's because it's all part of the general fund. It's all part of the pot. Right. So the pot all money goes into the bucket and things get paid out. One of which is police. I guess giving us the flexibility to put it where we want is I guess the the
entire franchise fee is is what I would approve. As far as going to 6% I I don't agree with that. Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor, I hate this item. Uh I wish we didn't have to. Uh I I wish I wasn't going to
support this. Uh but the reality is that I am going to support this for one reason is as council member Fernandez stated um number one the resident to a degree has more control over their electrical bill than they do the
constantly rising uh value of their property. You can do absolutely nothing sorry um you can do absolutely nothing to your home and yet the property will incre the property value will increase. Uh, so if I'm going to
do an increase, I'd rather it be here where the resident has a little bit more control. Um, that being said, uh, I am also comforted by the reduction of or the elimination of the the 10% hurricane
searchcharge. Um, what I did not see here was any mention of a start date for chart for for the change. Um, yeah. Yeah. The the numbers that council member Fernandez has in here are as if
as if we um would be able to start at October 1. It looks like we would probably not be able to start it October one because our agreement with that P&L that we recently looked at and council member Fernandez and I had a conversation about this before he completed all the to get information
before he completed the uh the specifics in here. It looks like we probably will not be able to start it until January 1 because there's a 60 by the time we notify FPL they they they started 60 days later. So we'll probably in this first year if you elect to raise it to
6% in this first year we're probably going to miss out on one quarter of that extra I mean obviously the the other part the fir the 3% we get it no matter what but the extra 3% we're probably going to miss out on one quarter's worth of revenue. So
when would it start? Huh? When would it start? January 1 is what we're okay that's what I want to know. Which is coincidentally the same time that the 10% goes down. That's what we're programming. Maybe we could squeeze it in December 1, but January, I would rather you didn't. I would rather you didn't. I would rather it
start January 1st so that our residents can experience the decrease at the same time that uh in the search charge as they do in the franchise fee. Uh, the other thing that leads me to support the item is the the the
reaction I had when I saw the chart that showed all Miami date county municipalities and their franchise fee and that we are the only ones at 3%. Um, so in reality, we look at our at at our
millage rate and we look at our our taxation in this town, yet everybody else is playing with cheat codes and we're not. They're using the franchise fee to, you know, uh, supplement their their budget and we're not. Uh, so in reality, comparing other municipalities
budgets to ours is apples to oranges. uh because in reality we're fighting with one hand behind our backs. Um so I think that this would allow us to actually more accurately be apples to apples and show just how low how much lower our taxes are because I'm sure we're not the
only municipality going through what we're going through. Um, I'm sure that come next year, number one, I'm sure everyone up here is going to work throughout this entire budget cycle to create the lowest possible millage rate.
Um, but when we come back next year, I'm sure that we're going to be in the top five again for lowest millages. Uh, and it'll actually be apples to apples. I'm pretty sure that if you did that chart that shows the top millage rates in the town or or the lowest millage rates in
the town, but you incorporated the fact that we're the only ones taking a 3% franchise fee, I'm pretty sure we're number one in the entire county. Uh so with that said, I will support the item. Mr. Mayor, Councilman Sanchez.
So, this item um has been brought up back way back when when the county it was taken away from the county and it was brought down to the local municipal level. And I remember the the hearings from all that time and how how against everybody was even at the 3%. And this
is even if let's say someone instead of running their AC for 10 hours a day decides to run it for eight hours a day, those savings are very minimal. That's the the really the the appliance that that costs the most to run in a household. Um this is just removing it
out of the millillage and into another section where it can be charged, but it's still coming out of the same pocket of the residents. Something we still haven't done is gone item by item, line by line of the budget to see if this is even needed. You know, we I I am not going to be able to
support this item because we don't know what the final number is going to be. you know, we we we're hoping for a flat rate, but we still haven't seen that final number. We have seen preliminary numbers if we leave it at a 2.07 and what's what can be cut, what's not what won't be cut, but we don't have a
definitive number. So, at this time, I cannot be in favor of this because it's still coming out of the same pocket, which is our resident. Even if it's not going towards the millillage, it's still coming out of the same source. So, it doesn't have my support at this time. Mr. M, can I can I answer that?
Uh, yes. Councilman Fernandez, before we move on. So, so I I don't necessarily agree with with and I respect your opinion, but the the thing the way that I believe that it really it it has to and the fact that
businesses also pay into it. You know, we I don't know if you've considered that. So whatever it is that we do maintain at or whatever it is that we agree on in terms of our franchise fee, we we have some generating funds from businesses too where we don't
necessarily when it comes to to the millage rate. So I think that we're offsetting some of those costs and and our tenants as well where our tenants are actually going to be paying into this where in our millillage with the millage rate they pay essentially at you know they're they pay the landlord the
landlord has to pay the taxes we get that but they're directly paying it into the millillage into the the franchise fee. So I just wanted that to be on the record and Okay. Yeah. If I can reply to that. Oh, well being I let him go out of turn just
because he's the the sponsor of the item, but let's go through the rest of the council first. Councilman Herszburg and then Councilman Cuadra Garcia. Thank you, Mayor. Um, so be very clear. I will support the item only because we have to if it's we're going to use this these funds, right, for for a general
fund. I'm not really in favor of 6%. And because we don't have the final numbers and honestly I'm in more I I've been doing the math and again we need the final numbers and we'll have a lot more clarity hopefully after the next workshop or both workshops. Um I'm more in favor of looking at a hybrid where
there is a slight millage increase and a slight uh franchise fee increase. Why? Because from and I'll double check the math and we'll talk about the workshop. When you look at the franchise fee and how it affects lower income people,
especially those on fixed income on in that own property, it probably might be more a year for them than it is for the property taxes because the property taxes for seniors and for seniors and longtime homeowners have more protections than the FPL franchise fee.
Honestly, if you look at the math, I'll bring the math, JC. I'll bring the math. Regardless, I I the reality of the situation is the franchise fee will most likely have to go up. Uh I'm going supported so then we can get staff to move forward on the ordinance issue. I mean I one year fine. I would like to
get rid of that ordinance and allow us to have that flexibility that we need as a council for you know just get rid of it period but let's work with it for one year and definitely want to get rid of that and and remove that those restrictions. Uh I'm not set on 6%. I'm
not going to tell you for sure that I'll vote yes on 6%. Um, but I do want to move forward to give us the option to vote yes on 6% because if we vote this down, town attorney or Mr. Manager, you can confirm if we vote this down today, we won't have time potentially to open
up the fr amend the franchise fee for for our budget in September. Yeah. I guess in response to that, I just want to put the motion that council and I don't want to speak for him, but the motion, if I understand it correctly, is really you're not making the decision to raise it to 6% tonight. What you're asking staff to do is to
prepare a a a resolution to bring back to you at the first council meeting with the change for you to consider, right? And then there it could be amended or whatever. And we will then also incorporate that into the budget that we'll present to you next week in the
budget workshop where we can get guidance from you at the workshop that we can then bring uh something different at the uh at the budget hearing in September. Right. What what we looked at because these two items, this item and the count the one that just passed dealing with
the flat budgets for the uh committees when since when they hit the the agenda, we started crunching numbers. And if this item were to pass in this current fiscal year and we were able to allocate the extra not 1.5 million, but because
it's only three quarters of the year because we miss a quarter, um we lose 250,000. So allocating what we can as of January 1st to this, we know that we can bring back a uh millage rate of 2.2459,
which is significantly less than the ceiling that was approved by this council, right? So that would only be an 8% uh adjustment from the current u flat fee or the current uh millage rate. So, if this were to eventually pass and so
to put it in context, you're only asking us by passing this is to bring back the resolution. It's not you're not approving it tonight, right? But I just want to be clear. I want I I think it's that we'll get two one ordinance and one resolution. The ordinance would be to modify two
separate votes because I think we all agree 100% to to modify that ordinance. Right. And then that'd be two separate. You're right. the the motion that council member Fernandez made I think is two separate motions and is to bring back two separate uh action items. One a resolution, one would be a res uh an
ordinance, right? I guess I just want to be transparent with with my colleagues that uh I don't know I don't believe we necessarily need the 6%. Uh and even here of the 6% I I think we're going to attack that budget a bit, but even here with the 6% we're still
looking at a a millage increase. uh if we go to 6% we want to try to get a flat in my opinion but I I'll bring what I believe I'm voting for it because I want it to be an option right but let's let's try to work it down and not be on the 6% and vice mayor I agree with you 100% about the looking at apples and oranges
I mean I made the same thing with like Deral they have debt that you know is not on the millage rate and things like that so I I think overall we're doing the best we can but um I just want to be clear on how I'll vote thanks Councilman Cuadra Garcia thank you Mr. there. Folks, let's be
very careful what we wish for, okay? Um, I want to echo um, Councilman uh, Alex uh, Fernandez. Um, Sanchez, Sanchez, I'm sorry. Uh, basically um, I think we should really
be very careful, think of what we're going to do with this village. Uh, let's go line item by line item and see if we could uh, find the money. Um, and I definitely won't be supporting it. And uh, we'll be talking to my wife today that the thermostat will be not going at
72 anymore. It'll be going to 78. She'll probably kill me, but uh, you guys are going to really going to hurt me with that thermostat issue. So, thank you. Anyone else? I have a reply. Councilman Garcia, thank you. Thank you. And I appreciate
the feedback everybody's giving here. I just want to reiterate once again that every year FPPL tries to increase the rates be it commercial be it residential by I mean every year they try billions
of dollars guys and eventually they're going to succeed and if this goes to 6% then it's really going to hurt the residents and and our businesses I I believe especially those who use you know anything that uses you know excessive electricity in the in in not
factories, but in our businesses. So, I would just keep that in mind. If we make that change, that'll happen. So, I I will never support. In fact, I think it's a good thing we're the only town that's at 3% and we've made it work for so long. Um, you know, I think that's
that's that's an amazing achievement. We should be proud of that. Not not not that the other towns are figuring out a way of working around it, but we should be proud that we kept it at three. So I unfortunately I cannot support this item at this time. Mayor, just a quick point of inquiry.
The the issue about setting 3% versus 6% or versus something that's a resolution item, right? Yes. So So if what Council Member Garcia is suggesting happens, right, and FPL gets a rate increase granted by the state,
wouldn't it take one meeting for us to immediately reduce it if we wanted to? Yeah, we we can adjust the rate one time per calendar year. Once per calendar year for calendar year. That's the agreement with But for purposes of his question, the answer would be yes. Because we just have to make sure it's not in
the same calendar year that we made some other adjustment. So we could do it uh late this year, October, whatever. But then and then we could do it again January. Yes. Okay. Precisely. Um so I'm going to say a few words as well. You know,
I'll start here. I think that it's not, if we really think about it, necessarily an honorable thing that we're at 3% with everybody else being at 6%. Right? Um I think just like the state legislature raised taxes when they extended the
online sales tax to uh you know online retailers that don't have a physical footprint in Florida and their basis that they did so was on the issue of you know fairness, right? Um I think that's what we're talking about here. Now, I'm not saying advocating one way or the
other toward one percentage, but procedurally, as Councilman Herszburg stated, in order to even have this as an option in time for the September budget hearings, we need to have staff present the resolution to us. Uh so what I see uh Councilman uh Fernandez is as asking
here is to present that option by resolution at one of the budget hearings and then uh separately if it were to pass to temporarily wave my ordinance because it was my ordinance to restrict how the excess above the 1275 gets
utilized. Um obviously it would come back though uh after that one-year uh uh waiver. Um and uh I I think again as I stated previously if we were going to have to raise any kind of tax um I would rather you know it come from that side
right because it is consumption based because it is something that you have more directly in your control rather than the numbers that the property appraiser has to run pursuant to state statute where there's no discretion given to the the residents or or uh the local governing bodies on on what to do.
Um, so, you know, I I think that would be the better way to go about it if we had to. But again, just as we did with the with the uh the initial tenative millage vote where we set it higher, just like we did in 2019, by the way, with a lot of other fiscal conservatives
there as well. Um, just to preserve our options, I think that it makes sense to go ahead and just preserve this option by voting yes. So, um, because again, we have to remember and we have to keep reminding the residents that this is not, you know, the council coming up
with wishlist items that they want to pay for. These are things we need to pay for, right? To Councilman Cuadra Garcia's point, we need to pay that $800,000 increase in the police budget, the 1.4, right? Uh, Mr. Manager, the 1.4
uh million increase on top of that for for training and other services that the police are asking us. Correct. the the total uh increase in the entire police budget was 800,000. Okay. So, it's not the 1.4 anymore. It's the 800,000. Right, Melissa? 800.
No. No. Yeah. Because and we've been talking about budget now for a few months. Police has given us uh I think either two or three budget estimates and they've they've modified them a little bit. Okay. Yeah. I think the initial one was the the 1.4
and and and I mean when I say we, I really mean Melissa. No, I we've been working night and day, you know, on the on the preparation. So, we've been looking at all different scenarios and I got adding here and subtracting there and so our our property tax uh values uh in terms of
revenue increased to by 693,000 give or take that it was less than police increase. That's that's Yes. No, no, but let let me make that argument. Okay. Um, but yeah, so it went up about 693,000, but we're getting hit with an $800,000 increase in the police budget, plus the final Michael Pizzy
settlement payment of 500,000 plus the double-digit increase in health insurance premiums and every other area, right? So, we're starting the hole on things that we are cannot negotiate that we cannot that are out of our control that we have to pay, right? Um, and we can't expect the county to come in and
help, you know, with other funds as they have in years past because they're themselves in a massive hole, right? So, and the state, you know, we we only get so much help every year from them, you know, as great as they all are, you know, when it comes to the annual appropriations grants. So,
unfortunately, there are needs that we need to pay for. And that's why we're in this position where we have to consider some tough options. Obviously, as I previously stated, my preference would be to keep the military flat, right? And to cut as much as possible, and that
includes, you know, um, you know, making sure that we don't have any golden calves that we're afraid to cut down if we need to. Um, you know, everything needs to be on the table to get to keep the millage rate flat and again to make sure that we're paying for those expenses that we need to pay, right? And
I would remind everybody that the reason why I agree with Councilman Garcia and Councilman Herszburg and the vice mayor about moving as quickly as possible on 59th Avenue is because the sooner we get that project done, the sooner we free up the people's transportation plan money that we get that we can apply toward other infrastructure needs so that we
don't have to be constantly in the situation of walking on eggshells when it comes to the budget. Um, with that, um, let's go ahead and call the role. Madam clerk, council member Fernandez, yes. Council member Cuadra Garcia,
if it's in support, it's a no. Council member Hzburg, yes. Council member Sanchez, no. Council member Garcia, no. Vice Mayor Mora, yes.
Mayor Diegas, yes. A the motion passes. Okay, with that um we are now on item 16 C which was report card performance evaluations by
Councilman Cuadra Garcia. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, um I'm going to bring back um information that echoes back to um our last council um talking about this report card. Uh I
think uh you guys have heard it before. Luis Coyaso uh has brought it uh uh in in the past. I'd like to know what has this report card uh has this been has this been done? if we So
basically what my motion is um I'm asking the town manager to move forward and request that we get report cards on everybody in this town including
ourselves on performance. Um when I say report cards are you know attendance performance um that's that's what I'm asking for. I'd like to know a little bit about this report card that has been talked about
before if anybody recalls it. U Mr. Vice Mayor, I I just want to say the part that I don't understand about this is that that's our job. It's our job to go and talk with the manager and tell him if we think
without going to them directly and intervening in in town staff. It's our job to talk to the manager. If we feel someone is overperforming, underperforming, uh if we feel that the manager's uh not up to par, tell him about it, bring it up here. That as far
as we're concerned in terms of like our performance, that's up to the residents. That's at the ballot box. I just think that this is just another task to give a member of the town staff and take them away from doing other stuff that could be
productive for our residents. Not that I uh uh disagree with the concept of accountability. Obviously, I do I agree with holding people accountable. I just don't know that this is the way of going about it. Uh unless you wanted to rephrase what you're requesting. I I
don't know that I see the purpose uh or would support this. I just basically brought it up because remember to wait until you are recognized to respond. But Councilman Cuadra Garcia, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Basically, I'm just bringing up something that I've heard in the past
uh about this report card. Do you guys recall it? Any of you? It was my item and what it was was an evaluation of the town manager that is done every February. It's an option. It's a requirement for the council members to fill out this form that was prepared and voted on and approved. Uh
and and the council can evaluate the manager's performance every year. And of course if at any point uh someone really feels strongly they have the option to bring a motion um you know to take action but we cannot uh have any any
action that applies to an individual employee because only the manager has the ability to hire and fire and to you know make cuts to or uh or you know or adjustments to any salaries etc. Um, but that's why what we have already existing is a yearly performance report in
essence for the town manager that can be filled out in February because that coincides with his work anniversary. Correct. Okay. Basically, uh Okay. And then if that's been done, uh then uh we'll close my item. Yeah. just just remember to uh uh go
ahead and and and February around that period of time to go ahead and request the form from the manager and you can fill it out and it becomes part of the public record based on the council member's comments. I think a motion to table and definitely lays in order. Well, I think he withdrew it. You know, did you withdraw it? Yeah.
Okay, never mind. Yeah. So, with that, we are now on item 16 uh D. Right. So, which would be uh the the letter of support for improvements to the left turn lane at Northwest 87th
Avenue and Northwest 106th Street. Mr. Vice Mayor. All righty, Mr. Mayor. I think I did you the a favor here. I wrote a letter on your behalf. I hope I didn't overstep my bounds. I do have the actual digital version of this letter to send to your office if you'd like to make any edits. It's just a proposed version of uh what
I how I think it should be worded. Um, so those who live on the west side and take I75 are going to be extremely familiar with this dilemma and it's making a left turn to get onto I75 from
87th Avenue. Uh, the left turn lane there is is much shorter. It's not that it's short, it's much shorter than it needs to be considering the demand on that road. Uh so I want uh us as representative uh representatives of our
residents uh to reach out to the county because this is outside of our jurisdiction um and get them to um to do the necessary studies and hopefully um improve that corner uh such that
um where is it? such that the it would be a dual left turn lane and the existing lane would actually be extended. Um go ahead. Did you want to second that? Yeah, I'll second that for discussion. Um can I vote on this?
There's not going to be any motion on this and I'll explain why. Okay. You know, I want to vote on it, too. I mean, I'm desperate for making change. your your vote vote is null and void first of all, you know, but yeah, as I as I stated before, intergovernmental relations are entirely in the discretion of the the
mayor unless there's a resolution um you know, expressing the will of the council, which that can be transmitted to the appropriate uh body, right? Because at that point, it would be fully voted on by by the council. Being that this is a letter from from my office to the appropriate authorities, I will
happily accept to d to uh well, since you took the first stab to review the letter that you have drafted, make uh any uh changes I deem appropriate and then to send it out. Um but again just reminding all my colleagues that when it comes to intergovernmental relations
that is 100% in the power in the in the purview of the mayor unless there is a motion for a resolution expressing the sentiment of the council. Right. Um with that said if you can please send it to Alexis uh and Alexis if you can please
forward it to uh JV uh for him to send over to me so we can review it and make edits tomorrow and get it out right away. I withdraw my motion. Um, I also want to point out to you, uh, uh, per request that you had made a couple meetings ago, the Panthers,
unfortunately, yes, it took a while for us to get a hold of them, and then once we did, they they just stated they're not available uh, for today's meeting, and they have not gotten back to us on any alternative dates. So, just want to um, you know, to point that out. Okay,
with that, we're now on a page 196. Okay. Yeah. I I don't know why then. Okay. Well, okay. Uh, Councilman Sanchez, I believe you have to wave the rule. No. No. Okay. So, which was the other one that we were adding a waiver for? 16mm.
Oh, yes, that's right. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Uh, which we already took took up. All right. So, with that 16e 988 signage, Councilman Sanchez. Yeah. So mental health is a very important aspect of our daily lives and services such as 988 exist to help if a resident in in need of a moment of
emotional distress, experienced suicidal thoughts or facing mental health or facing a mental health crisis. Despite the launch of the 988 hotline, many people still don't know that they exist. So to create more awareness of it, I have drafted which it was given to you earlier today, a physical copy of a
resolution that instructs the manager to work with our mental health task force to implement 988 signs around town in our buildings, in our parks. It wouldn't it has no fiscal component to it because it's all going to be done through sponsorship funds and it just brings
more awareness to mental health in our town. I move to adopt. Well, what do you mean second? Yeah. So sorry. Um are we uh voting on the actual resolution or or his NBI? Right. So I I my motion is to accept the
resolution so we can start working on putting that up. Okay. Um any discussion? All right. Seeing none. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. No. The eyes have it. The item passes. We're now on uh 16F
business tax revenues fees report by Councilman Garcia. Thank you, Mayor. appreciate it. Um, I spoke to the the manager and it was brought to my attention and correct me if I'm wrong. Um, some of our the business fee that we that we generate, not all of it has been collected. Um,
we're still there's still a percentage that hasn't been collected or there was a report that you that we were talking about creating to make sure that we're getting all the revenue that uh that's supposed to come to the town. So then we know, you know, to make these decisions during the budget cycles, we have an accurate uh account for all the revenue
coming in uh last year so we can make predictions for for this upcoming cycle. Um so I would just want to ask you a couple questions about that the business tax revenue fee currently. Uh are we up to date with all the all the all the collection of that? Uh
there are some challenges. There's some technological challenges. There's some challenges uh especially with businesses just coming in and opening up and without uh basically almost a uh an inspector going to every commercial
property and walking the halls or going to the directory and looking to see what business doesn't correlate with our records than going in and then then citing them. But, uh, I think if you what you'd like, what I what I think you'd like, we can come back to you next
month and report it as a manager's report with a full detail of this process. We can give you any, you know, how we do it, what we do, what we collect, uh, any challenges that we have, whether it's technology can solve or whether it's something, some other
factor that we think can solve it. we can come back and give you that report so you have a clear understanding uh in September uh on this process and our collection levels. I I'd like it a little sooner than September because I I'd just like to make sure that there's if there's
something we can do to make sure we're collecting all the revenue possible uh because that revenue comes in and it goes out, right? So, um currently, do you have an idea of how much business tax revenue we're collecting as of um let's say August of of 2025? I don't know. Uh Melissa,
it's too difficult. I understand it or at least the percentage that's still that that that that we failed to collect up to this time. Is it like 10% 20% 30% of the of the businesses? Good evening, Mayor Council Council Garcia. To answer your question, um over
the last couple of years, we've been able to collect on average between 130 to $150,000. Okay. now with an initiative from the mayor's office where he was looking to streamline this process uh where folks new business could just do everything online and renewals online. We're currently working with the software
company to flush out those issues. Um hoping probably with the next month or so we could get that done and what we're going to probably ask the community to do at that time is we're going to start from scratch. We're going to send out all the emails that we have say hey come in and apply. So that way we have a cast
a bigger net of people who may have not been applied or may have been delayed and give them that one time bite at the apple so we can get all the new businesses online and then the renewal process will be taking place online as well too. And it's good that we're getting a lot more businesses coming and that's great. That's great. So So it's a software
issue. Is there a cost to to fixing that software? Yeah, we we've been working with them. Uh there was a work order that we uh that we issued to them about last year. We've been it's been a project that's probably been undertaken probably like a year year and a half. Uh one of the revelations that came out a year and a half. No, one of the revelations that came out
of this issue was a lot of the input from the data was being manually inputed over the years. We're talking about 12 years or so of just uh staff putting in information that was not correlating with the fees. So there was an issue with the actual data. So, one of the one of the challenges was
that was trying to get all all the businesses online to match the fee. And with that, what came out of it was this new change of direction where we're just going to start off as a clean slate. We have all the emails already. We have about over 2,000 emails where we're
going to send out a mass email, get everybody to apply new, and then have that come to Jesus moment. They make the payment, and then from there, they'll be doing the renews after So I guess my question would be what I'm hearing is at this point right now we are not 100% sure how many companies I mean
businesses um have paid the tax fully or or up to date with on average over the last couple years about 1,700 businesses pay. Okay. But what I'm hearing from you is that we're not 100% sure that we can there there's definitely things that business out there haven't paid or up to
date. Yeah. And again, just to the manager's point, it will require boots on the ground andor an additional officer, okay, to do that leg work where we have to go online, go to Sunbiz, have boots on the ground visiting each of these businesses to actually see what's actually out there.
Okay. So, obviously there's an issue when we're not 100% sure of how many businesses uh we know how many business we have, but that they're up to date with their business tax revenue. Um, and Okay. Can you go over a little bit about where that business tax revenue goes and and what part of the what part of the is
that goes I believe it just goes back into the general fund. General fund. It goes into the pot. So So my item basically is to ensure that we know where we're at. Do everything we can to get there because this goes to the general fund and we're going to need that money. Yes.
We're going to need that money to point. That's something that we've undertaken you know for a while now. We've been working towards that end tech both technology-wise and other checks and balances to make it's been a year and a half. No, no, no. And again, the year and a half is where we've been able to to
increase the revenue because we've been very aggressive with our outreach. I will tell you on average since 2012 since we've implemented the software, I want to say we've been averaging about 70 to 80,000. Within the last two or three years, we've been able to get aggressive, get more of an outreach out there, and we've
been able to double that. Now, if you wanted the full 100%, it would require an additional officer to go out there. Are we going retroactively and and and and charging them with AOS? We we try, but state law prevents that. This is all statutory uh require. So, what I'm hearing is that we have
left tens of thousands of dollars on the table because we weren't able to. And and again, I'm not blame throwing blame around. I'm just saying we weren't able to establish a system that accurately collected what we were owed. And because statutory uh uh barriers, we can't go
back and collect that money. No. Again, we we invoice for that money, but again, if they challenge us challenges us on that and they use the state law, we can just charge them for the Do you have an idea how much money we've lost over the last uh five years, four years? Again, to the manager's point, if you want, we could come back next month with a full comprehensive report with all the
information next month because again, we need we kind of need uh we kind of need to to Okay, so this is obviously a bigger problem than I thought. Um, but council member, it's a problem that we kind of Danny and his crew already
identified a while back, but I wasn't I wasn't aware of it. No, no, I mean, we don't I mean, is any was anybody aware that we haven't collected money? Well, I do know that there was a push by some council members to cut out the BTR entirely. So, I think that also may have created some ambiguity on their part as to what it's important to the council.
Obviously, we have a new council now and as the director pointed out, we can't go retroactively after this money. So I think that going ahead and and and you know harping too much on this issue of how much was left on the table is you know is ultimately not going to really solve much of anything. But I think uh
if if the goal is to figure out how do we improve I think that is that is productive and that is the right way to go through the chair. I 100% agree with you, mayor, harping on on um on the past, you know, and trying to improve it, but it does bring up an
issue that that there was an issue going on. I wasn't personally aware of we've left a lot of money on the table. So, I think that we can go moving forward, right, thinking, okay, is there anything else like this where revenue is not being collected because of processes
that we need to improve that could be brought out to light earlier. So then the count, my colleagues, myself can try to come up with some solutions to help you collect that revenue. I also would love to to cut those those those BTRs if we could for our businesses, but I don't
even know how much we're getting now. And and apparently we don't either, right? The we know we know how much we're getting. Point of order. Yeah. But 100% right% that's all recognizes the vice mayor to make his point of order, which takes precedence. No, I I I'd just like to see if we can
get a motion so we can get us in proper posture. And my motion is I would like a report and I would like it as soon as possible to show how much we've left on the table this this year and what's the process to fix this issue with the software. Um and
again I'd like and also like every month to get a report on how much money's m been missing and how much we we you know how much we need to collect. I second for very brief discussion. Okay, Mr. Vice Mayor and then Councilman Fernandez. The next meeting would be I think
September 16th. Uh yet we have our first budget hearing. I think that this is germanine to the budget. Uh is there any chance the budget hearing is 5 days earlier? Uh if you can get us that report by then. That'd be great. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.
I I'm missing something because if we if we're trying to figure out what it is that we've lost, then that means you've identified businesses that haven't registered. So, is it is it that we know the businesses or we we we assume that we we're missing some, but do we know
how many businesses or have we identified businesses that haven't registered? And again, uh, Councilman Fernandez, just to the manager's point. Um, it would need an basically an addition of an additional person, either somebody in the office and or boots on the ground to identify these businesses. As you may
know, businesses come and go and I know the US census grabs like a snapshot in one given year, but then you have COVID that happens and a lot of people go back to having home offices and they close their doors. So, we that's what we've seen over the years as well too is a lot of people just move in and out. Um, and
there is tools out there like the the Department of State, Division of Corporations where you could look up addresses and things like that and also Property Appraisers Office, but again, that does require a human resource to identify that and that's a full-time job. What we've done in the past and
what we've done over the last couple years is we've become very aggressive with the software in sending out these uh renewal notices and I've seen personally an uptick I want to say of over 100%. Like I said, I looked at the numbers from 2012 to about 2019, and I want to say on average, we collected
about 70 to $90,000. Over the last three years, we're collecting double that, about 130 150. Now, what the goal is based on the MA on the mayor's uh proposal to streamline that process. We're trying to bring that operation online. And by doing that, we're going to just start with a clean slate, send
out an email to all the businesses that we already have archived saying, hey, you have to come in and apply, but you could do it online now. We're going to provide a YouTube video. We're going to provide a splash page on the web page, make it a lot easier for them. What has happened over the past is folks have to come sometimes in person, they send it
by mail, um they get the email, but then it requires code officers to follow up and send violation notices. And we're really good at doing that. I mean, if you just look at the revenue alone that we've collected on code violations, the proof is in the pudding. But again, if you guys wanted a full comprehensive
outreach of identifying each and every business in the town of Miami Lakes, I need one more guy or gal to do that. Any other comments on this? Councilman Sanchez and then Councilman Herszburg.
Okay. Um, so obviously we have our tenants that are part of a shopping center. They don't have their BTRs. Um, and obviously that income isn't coming into the town. Is there something we can do to instead of holding the tenants liable, holding the landlords liable to make sure that their tenants have what
they're supposed to in order to operate in Miami Leagues? And that's that's what we do. Once we do identify that somebody has not paid or is an absent payer, we we send it to both the tenant and the landlord and we initiate enforcement proceedings at that point and then we get compliance. But what is the highest level of
enforcement to the landlord? uh viol uh so so remember in order for you to have your business tax receipt you also need a certificate of use right in the past what we've done is because Florida state law only requires a one-time fine if you're caught in violation of no more than $250 we've only been citing that
what we've implemented over the last couple years because it's a violation of the certificate of use process we're using that as just your your normal typical code enforcement violation that escalates and caps at five $10,000 leans and then we also cite the BTR press as well what too so now They're getting two separate violations. One for not having
their CU and not having their BTR. The BTR were capped. I mean, you can look I I think it's section 205.55. There's very specific there on what we can and cannot do. And we've also codified that within our own business tax within our MUN code as well too. 36 37-56.
Okay. So, we're capped with that. That that's what governs our process. What we've done over the last couple years, we've been very aggressive in doing our outreach and using the software to our advantage and sending these renewal email reminders. You got to come in and pay. You got to come in and pay. You got to come in and pay. Finally, you know,
folks come in and pay. We've been able to double our uh our income over the last couple years. Now, if you guys want 100% coverage, again, I'm going to need more resources to get that done. Well, hopefully the day comes that we have our own zip code and when registers one business is registered with some biz and
put the zip code of Miami Lakes. Actually, if you look at the division of corporations, they have a I'm going to I'm share with you guys a cheat sheet code. You could actually go in there and drill it down by the street. So, I could actually have a dedicated staff member to literally go by the property appraisers office, start at one end from the town, go to the other, go
one by one and identify what businesses are registered with the state. But again, we have to that requires somebody has to send a violation notice. sometimes put in the and that assumes that they're corporations. If they're so sle proprietorships or partnership or something else that's not a corporation under the radar.
Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Councilman Herszburg. Thank you. Um I I guess you answered the question. Doing getting these BTRs is is is work intensive, right? I mean, you're saying you need an additional officer. I get it. You go in some biz. I understand
what you're saying. or have people go out to actual commercial buildings and and and find who's operating and things like that. Right. That's correct. But uh the system that we have in place is improving and how are Right.
Doubling. How do you My only question is how do you make sure new businesses come in and be part of the new system that seems to be working a lot better. Yeah, it's it's part of that that good faith system that hopefully I mean we do have a new business guide on the town website and keep in mind that all these
businesses also have to register with the county. So, one of the things that we're going to start implementing as part of this process is we're going to start requesting a public records request through the county identifying what businesses are register have a business tax receipt with the county and not with the town. Right. Right. So, that's something that I I actually spoke with the manager
about. Like, for example, I I just for being an attorney get a get a tax from the county for $75 for not not even have a business. They just say, "Here's your name. You're an attorney. Here's your $75 tax." It's it's ridiculous. It's pretty new. Uh we charge you 40. It's a discount, right? But no, I don't even have a
business. It's just to my name because I'm a member of the bar. So the county obviously has a database that you guys could try to use or even ask them for some get that data and that would make the job. Yeah, that's going to be part of our process now is uh grabbing that as a public record request and just filtering
it through a spreadsheet and using chat GBT to drill it down to the zip codes. Thank you. Anyone else? Oh, what happened? Council member Garcia. So at Council Member Garcia at the first budget
hearing is okay to report back to you. There's no other opportunity. Yeah. No, absolutely. I just want to be able to fix the issue and make sure we're getting the amount any resources you need and because I' the other part of this the same the same motion that I have here the item is to use that money
to help uh if I knew exactly when we know exactly how many to help promote the town as much as working with the uh you know Ray Palasio was here working with the you know with the chamber working with the economic development committee to try to help businesses grow here in the town and that's why knowing
how much we actually have helps Well, we know what we have. Oh, okay. Well, how much how much you're supposed to have total? You know, that just having a total amount at most accurate amount. And that was the u the reason for my item. Well, I just want to uh uh uh clarify the motion included the $20 s charge
that President Palasio's raised or is it just a report? I believe I only heard the report. No. Yeah. I'd like to have Exactly. I like to know. No, not the not I need to know what we have, right? And you know, if we're going to have that consistently, uh, because I'd love to once I know this, then I'll come later
on to propose something to help, you know, promote the town with with how we use that money. But for now, I just want that report and I want to do everything we can to help you be able to get the systems you need to collect appropriate revenue for the town. And if I can have that in the next budget, it would be great. Budget meeting would be great.
Second in case you need it again. Oh, no, no. I I think it was moved in second. It was. I just thought you were asking. No, no, no. I wasn't asking about the second. And I was asking about what what specifically was in the motion because some some of the commentary appears seem to suggest that that he was asking for the second part that
President Palasio has mentioned. But okay, with that, all those in favor? I. All oppose? No. Mayor, I have a motion. The item passes. What motion is this? It's going to be a motion, Germaine, on this issue. Uh, and it's that number
one, I'd like to know from the attorneys, are we allowed, if we were to charge a search charge, are we allowed to turn that over to as a grant maybe to the Chamber of Commerce for uh uh for them to uh disperse it. Uh
what I would suggest is uh let's wait to get the study back uh um and and then you know get get the final answer on that. Um I think that we definitely want to get more information before we start um you know going down that path. But
what I will say though too is that with respect to um the the the searchcharge idea I think with the search charge we you know again I think we just need more information as far as the grant. Sorry that's what I where I meant to go. As far as it being
a grant to the chamber, I think more specifically what we are trying to um uh to do is just what we do already now, right? The the town contributes I think it's something like $5,000 or so every year to the uh Chamber of Commerce as you to support them and as part of our
membership uh in the chamber. And uh I I presume that were that search charge to pass down the line um then that would be strictly for or as a contribution to the chamber as well, you know. not not so much as a grant so much as a contribution, right? Or or if the idea
is just to implement the the idea that Carlos Padilla had from Chelas, then we just establish a program within the EDC budget, you know, for marketing. But again, that but that's why I'm saying it might be better just to wait a bit longer. I'll withdraw it, but but I I do want to see it come back though.
Okay. Well, you that that that's in your control uh you know, with any business item. Okay. Okay, with that we are now on my item uh which is 16G. Uh I move to wave uh uh section 7.2 and special rules of order. Is there a second?
Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. I. I. All oppose? No. The eyes have it. The rule is waved. Um, so there was uh I was contacted by a realtor in town who was having an issue with their client related to a property
on which even though the lean had been uh uh closed out, it had been uh satisfied or rather wiped out, you know, as part of a foreclosure judgment, um it was still showing up though w with respect as a as a cross lane for the
prior owner of the property. um you know this issue where where the town is trying to preserve its rights and therefore even though we don't have a lean on the property it still shows up as a possible lean you know that that is known as a bleeding lean right I think in in the simplest terms so the issue
here is I just want to go ahead and direct the administration to come back with a proposal on how to uh how to better preserve the town's rights to go after um a an an owner of property right without affecting uh the the the
marketable the marketability of title for that particular property which you know often will cause especially more stringent title insurers like the fund to not close on the property and that's what was happening in this particular situation. So with that that is the motion second.
Any discussion? Seeing none all those in favor say I. I. All oppose no. The eyes have it. The item carries. Thank you. Next up, we have 16H, staff to evaluate automated gate arm upgrades for STDs by
Councilman Herszburg, who is now recognized to present his item. Thank you, Mayor. It's something we've discussed at the workshop before. Um, this is sort of two parts and again more direction to staff for a budget. Uh first the the way I see this happening
is one I believe we can we can have a 5% contingency across the boards from the special taxing districts and and that's something that I think we should give uh staff um our position on if we want to just see the the special taxing district budgets at 5% contingencies across the
board lower that and potentially provide some savings and also potentially provide some room for some improvements. I think this is the most common sense uh improvement that we can make. It, you know, residents have come and discussed this. I live in one of the special
taxing districts and I'm telling you, I go through the gate when it's just up and nobody's there so many times and it's just an open invitation that nobody's here. Come on through it. And really, if you read the ordinance to a tea, we're almost in violation of the ordinance by having the gate completely
unmanned and not even a gate. So, uh, I've discussed with staff it's it's it's a modest cost. It's a modest improvement that would allow when the guard is not able to open and close the gate manually that the gate senses a car coming and
it, you know, there's a slight delay, it opens and then closes instead of the gate just being open for 15, 20 minutes, however long it happens. Uh, it makes sense and that's my motion to give staff the 5% contingency across the board, right? Let's lower the contingency. I
don't there's I don't see a reason for different STDs to have different contingencies. And then second to provide for staff to come with us with firm options and cost so then we can potentially put in the budget uh during our budget. Any discussion?
Yeah. Um I don't know. I I guess I would uh just amend it just to the degree of and I don't know if you want to just accept it as a friendly amendment to your motion. uh just that when staff does come back um that there be some sort of provision or protocol to where
there's a timeout. I I don't this should be used for them being in the bathroom, not going on an hour lunch. No, of course. Uh we the the enacting ordinances all require um 247 man gates. Uh so we have
to comply with that. Um, so if there's some sort of programming in the automated gates that can either trip and let us know, let JP know that, hey, that system's been on for a while, then let's implement that.
Agreed. That makes uh that makes a lot of sense. It's not supposed to be a a tool to avoid the guard. Uh, and if you want to input on that, I I accept that that amendment. Yeah. And then through the mayor, JP was able to actually uh go ahead and speak directly with the vendor, and there is a timer that we can set on it. So it
cannot exceed after that. It will go back into the manual position and it would have to be forced up and down. So therefore, a resident stopped at the lane would have to beep until they got the the guard back out and therefore causing an issue where it does not stay automatic and then that would in turn become an issue of not having a man sentinel for 24/7.
Perfect. So yeah, I I'll accept that into the motion. Any other uh discussion on this item? Just quick, we have an idea of cost. Councilman Garcia asked if there would be any cost or I'm sure there's cost but I'm saying
well we have cost but what I what it would be just an average I love yeah for the infrared photo switch you are looking at for section one $932 lock lmen also one guard house $932 Royal Oaks section one and Royal Oaks
east are just double that $1865 each and again if I may Mr. Mayor, you're recognized the that cost. If we lower the contingency to 5%, we're going to easily have that cost and and reduce the assessment. Right? So that's why as part of this motion, I think we should give
staffs direction to lower that contingency 5% across the board. I believe staff thinks that's appropriate. And even if we make these improvements, the the rate, I believe, would still go down to what the rate they proposed last time. All right. Uh any other discussion? All
right. Now, we'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor say I. I. All oppose. No. The eyes have it. The item carries. Uh we are now on item. Well, actually no, we already covered uh 16 I earlier.
Uh 16J by count by Vice Mayor Mora. Amendment to sponsorship ordinance. Yeah. So very simple. The purpose of this uh item is to eliminate some confusion uh eliminate some burdensome
burdensomeness. Uh so uh to the first point uh we we currently uh extend authority to the manager to accept uh or to approve um procurements uh up to 25,000. Uh this is just to match that.
Um but also rather than a procurement where we're spending money, this is actually us taking in money. Uh I was driven to do this by what happened recently with the Dollywood um donation where they actually had to jump through hoops and
uh get two separate checks because of the amount that the manager was limited to. So this just solves that and it asks the staff to come back with a a ordinance I guess changing the town code. uh amending section 13-2110A
uh to to reflect this change. I'll second it. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Seeing none, all all in favor say I. I. All oppose. No. The eyes have it. And the motion carries. Which brings us now to item 16L,
resident decals for special taxing districts, Royal Oak section 1 and Royal Oaks Park East by Councilman Herszburg, which requires a waiver of section 7.2. Councilman Hersburg, you're recognized for a motion. Move to wave the rule section 7.2.
Waiver of section 7.2 has been uh moved and seconded. Uh all those in favor say I. I. All oppose, no. The eyes have it. Councilman Herszburg, you are recognized to introduce the item. Again, quickly to give direction to staff for the STD budget. Something that we've discussed multiple times and now
that we're moving forward, I honestly don't think section one necessarily needs it because they have one gate with a resident guard, resident gate, right? But Roy Oaks has two gates. It doesn't have a resident gate. So, uh, I want staff to go ahead and give us the options for decals at least in the Roy
Oak side and then we can make a determination if we're go just charge the residents or just put in the budget uh or you know two two that we don't charge and if you add get more than two then you do charge whatever we decide but we just need staff to move forward and tell us how much it costs. So that's my motion.
Second. Any discussion? All right. Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. All oppose? No, the eyes have it and the motion is adopted. With uh that we are now on item 16M,
future needs not wants by Councilman Cuadra Garcia, but pursuant to the council's action earlier uh on the order of business. Uh Councilman Sanchez wanted to make a point of order as I understand it regarding some kind of waiver. Uh so Councilman Sanchez, let's start with you being that it's a point of order.
Yes. I I I welcome Mr. Kaya up to the podium to explain a rule 610 of the special rules of order. Thank you, Councilman, mayor, council. Um, 6 room 10.10 6.10 of your special rules of of order require that uh at any
time that you're going to place an item for consideration uh assign the the memorandum has to include certain things. It has to include the purpose of the item, the action, uh the major points to be covered, uh the reason necessary for the action, the action desired by the council member, a gross estimate of the fiscal impact of the
items, and the portions of the town strategic plan which are satisfied by the new business items. Um if you find that uh the item does not have it, uh you don't have to accept the item and move the item forward. Of course, this body is always welcome to to wave that rule uh should decide to do so.
Thank you. So, Councilman Sanchez, with that explanation, what is the the action you're proposing? I was looking forward is that I'm open to discussing it, but moving forward with the new business items from Councilman Cuada Garcia is to give us a bit more of of content so that we can do
our due diligence before we get to the meeting and be able to, you know, to to see more about the actions that he wants to do so we don't have to research everything all at once while we're up there. Okay. Yeah. And and that's fair. I mean, I would argue that that to the extent he is solely discussing the preamble, um,
then that then he's provided sufficient detail to, uh, meet the requirements of the rule. But to the extent that he, uh, begins to discuss anything beyond the preamble, um, then that's where we run to an issue. But to be safe, I think I agree with you, we should probably go
ahead and take a vote on it. But Councilman Guad Garcia, always remember that in your memorandums, you need to go ahead and provide as much detail about specifically what you want to do and discuss as possible, right? Uh, you know, because right now, as it reads,
you only want to discuss the preamble, although I think it's clear from the notation on your exhibit that you want to go talk about more than that. But just to adhere to the council rules, you need to make sure you put specifically what it is you want to discuss. Um, but we it seemed as if your colleagues are
going to go ahead and wave the rule. So, with that, uh, Councilman Sanchez moves to, uh, wave the rule. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. All oppose? No. The eyes have it. Councilman Quad Garcia, you are recognized to discuss your item.
Thank you. Uh, Mr. Mayor and councel, I am going to make it brief. actually um um I had a uh resident reach out to me to um give me a little insight on this uh preamble uh and when I and I saw the
little bit of reading that I did um the key word that that caught me was the needs. Basically needs to me are uh very simple. Uh making sure that we keep and we we we you know what I'm going to
support is the essentials that we need public service and and and so forth and so on. So basically another need to me would be uh making sure that we allocate funds
uh for the next four years to be able to repair sidewalks. That's one of the uh one of the uh topics that I ran on and I am going to strongly support because uh that is a very important topic and we
have not talked about it lately but I'm going to remind you guys moving forward in the next three and a half years that we probably have forgotten that um several seniors in this town and I don't want to bore you um have actually had
slip and falls and have gotten hurt on our sidewalks. So, basically, uh I'm going to make it simple. My uh my uh my needs might be different than than other people's needs or wants. I'm just
trying to highlight and remind us that there are needs and there are wants. So, my needs are making sure that we have the support for public safety and the support moving forward in the next four
years of making sure that we have funds to be able to work with this issue on sidewalks uh so these sidewalks don't bring us other possible issues in the future. I hope that uh uh the that that made a
little sense. Uh, is there anything Dale said uh that I'm missing? Well, the way it works when you're when you're trying to have a discussion with your colleagues, it's that you need to make a motion otherwise it's not properly before the body and there's no more discussion that can can be had. So
my my question to you is do you want to have a discussion or or was it that you just wanted to make that statement? That's just a statement. That's the motion I wanted to state. Okay. Well, just so you know, councilman, for the future, that is not the proper use of the new business item, right? If you want to have a discussion
with your colleagues, then you need to move the discussion in order to open it up to all your colleagues. A the new business item, the point of it is to have some action that follows. Uh, you know, rather than just communicate a thought, right? Um, so so councilman reports would be one area where you can
do that, right? um or uh as part of another discussion like what we were having earlier on the franchise fee and some other items that connected to the budget that would have been a more appropriate time to include that comment. Um but you know again I'm just trying to help you you know for the future um to make sure you understand
you know how all the various rules of of the council work together and what's required of all of us. Um but but okay perfect. So there being no motion, we're moving on to item is 16N, pardon me, we already covered that 160,
creation of a standing agenda for uh agenda section for staff reports and deferred council items. And uh this also requires a rule uh rule waiver. So with that, let's start start in the waiver. Is there a motion? Yes, mayor. I move to wave section 6.10
of the special rules of order. This one is done for a separate a different reason than uh council member qualaria. It's because I surpassed the three new business item limit. Understood. Seconded. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. I. All oppose? No.
The eyes have it. Uh vice mayor, you are recognized to introduce your item. Thank you, mayor. All right. So, uh, the reason that this item came up is because I I feel that over the last,
I would say few months, but in reality, I've noticed it since May of last year when I first got in that uh, items would come up uh, they get referred to staff and then it's like sending it into a
black hole and never comes back. Um, not all all of this is due to the the staff's own faults. Sometimes I actually blame the the council because there have been times where we have not wanted to be the bad guys to our colleagues and
simply vote no on something. And so to be nicer, we simply say let's just refer it to staff with the hopes that it never comes back. Um, and I'm just saying the quiet part out loud here. Um the purpose of this is a that's not what we should
do. Um we are all capable of having civil disagreements here while still properly uh holding each other accountable. Uh and two holding our staff accountable. Um especially on the ones that are legitimately referred to
to staff with a request that it come back. Um that's part of the reason why uh when uh Jeremy came back earlier uh during this meeting with his report on the uh sandbag covers,
I made the note of this is exactly what I'm talking about. When I say have it come go to staff and come back, he presented items uh you know estimated budgets, pictures of what it would look like. That is verbatim what
it means to refer something to staff and have it come back. Um, what I'd like to see, and I'll just go ahead and put this into a motion, is I move for the creation of a new recurring uh section on the regular town council meeting agenda titled referred items, which
would be placed uh after resolutions and before new business. The section would include a brief written I had in my NBI verbal, but for the purpose of this motion, I'll remove the verbal part. A brief written report from staff on the
status of or findings related to any items previously referred by the council, each item listed in the written report will state the month in which the item was originally referred, the name of the staff member or department to whom the item was delegated, and the last status of the item. Items will
remain on this agenda section until the item is formally closed by council action and council members may also request that specific referred items be placed back on the main agenda for renewed discussion or formal action. Second.
It's been moved and seconded and uh I will go ahead and turn to Councilman Hersburg who seconded the item. Thank you, mayor. And I I like the the idea a lot and I'm thinking back of some of the items that I approved earlier uh you know back in January February and I honestly part of it is on me right it's
part of us on us to reach out to staff. So first a question to the manager and then I'll get to my comments on what I think on on your main motion Mr. Manager when when we approve an item right and that item for example has to do with parks. I mean, we have the ability, we
keep you in the loop, but we have the ability to go to the parks director, say, "Hey, we I'm I need this information on my item that's been approved, right?" And we do, I think we do in the charter. We have that that ability. No, you have in the charter to communicate with staff if it's an investigation, right?
Uh an internal investigation that's only approved by resolution. It's it's real restrictive, but Okay. Oh, we go to you, right? Yeah. You're going to get you're going to get it. And and and the reason that I prefer that you go to me is if you're going to one of my staff members
and you're not getting what you want, I'm you can't hold that staff member accountable. You can hold me accountable, but you can't hold him accountable, right? I can hold him accountable. So, if I'm kind of if I'm left out of that communication, that's why I prefer that any inquiry, any
direction, any request, come to me and I'm going to make sure I'm going to get it to the right staff member because sometimes, you know, you may not know which is the right staff member because sometimes the departments overlap. Um, and then I'm going to make sure that you're going to get a response, at least a response. Maybe the response is no,
not yet or we don't know or we're but at least you're going to get a reply sooner better than later. I'm not going to leave you out there hanging. And that is my accountability to you. Right. Okay. Um and then the the second part is I I like needing this. I just
don't know if it needs to be on the agenda, right? I feel like we could the staff could send us a report every month. Uh obviously that's a public record. Anyone can ask for it, but I I don't know if we need to have it on the agenda. That's my only comment. I like the idea based off what other people
based on what other you guys think we can have it on the agenda. But I think it doesn't necessarily need to be on the agenda. Briefly respond. Okay. The vice mayor recognized for a response. Just a brief response on that. The reason why I think it should specifically be on agenda is one of the
guiding principles on which we which we cite to in every single MBI is increasing transparency. Uh and this is a key part of that. It's not just us. It's also the residents. It's let them see what they're doing. And all those people out there who love to say the
council's not doing anything up there. There you go. Hey, they are working on things. Uh whether it be the council's not working on anything or the staff doesn't do anything, they're overpaid. All those comments, right? At least let them see what are the deliverables that they're working on. Um, the other
reason, and I I mean this with all the respect in the world, at my last agenda briefing prior to the last council meeting, I asked for this and you said, "I will that you guys internally have that that document." You already have this. Uh, it's just a matter of sending
it to me. And I said, "Great, send it to me." It was never sent. So, I I I see it. What if you make it an informal thing, the ball's going to get dropped. Uh, I'd like to see it on the agenda as a recurring item monthly, not quarterly,
monthly, so that we're seeing monthtomonth is something slipping through the cracks or not? And and and and then once it gets done, it's removed. I specifically in the NBI, the written NBI included the word verbal, a brief written and verbal
report. When I made this motion now, I omitted the word verbal because I agree it I don't think it needs to be a part of the meeting, but it should be in the agenda for purposes of accountability. And Mr. Mayor, if I can, sort of a question to the vice mayor. Um, let's say there's an item that I passed. I can
think of one or two that I've passed before and I actually I research it more, talk to staff. Bad idea. I don't want to pursue it anymore. How do I have the ability or we as the council have the ability to take it off that list? That's that's my main concern then. Yes, that's item number four. If you if you email me, I'll take it off
the list fast because we have things that we're working on. This is where I have a question to the attorney based on a discussion he and I were having earlier, which once something is voted on, it belongs to the body. It, you know, the individual council member, neither the individual
council member nor the town manager can go ahead and remove it unilaterally. Correct. Correct. And and that goes also back to a point that the manager brought up in the way that the charter is written. The only way that any direction can be given for the manager to ask staff to do anything is if the body asked for it.
The council, each of you individually do not have that power to do that. I believe the vice mayor wanted to respond. Yeah. So, it's covered in the third point that I raised in in the motion, which is items will remain on this agenda section until the item is formally closed by council action. By
removing the verbal part of the report, when uh you as the chair reach that section, you just say, "Hey, we're here. any motions, comments? No. And then you move forward. Unless uh council member Hersburg wants to remove something, he'll say, "Hey, I want to move to
remove this after further thought." And then we as a council, as a body would at that moment vote to remove it. And mayor, that was my concern is do I am I bringing NBI or since it's on the agenda, one of us go, "Oh, you know what? That thing I don't want to do anymore. I'll make a motion to remove it from the list." And then obviously the
body approves. Councilman Hzburg, uh, pardon me, Fernandez. or or were you were you done? Well, that that's how it works. The the agenda item comes up. If you see something you don't want on an agenda list, you say, "Well, actually, I want to make a motion to remove uh number
11." And that's how we remove things, right? As long as it doesn't violate the rule, the special rule of order on the side that loses a motion. As long as it doesn't violate Well, there would be that. And then also, and some people trying Well, exactly. some people trying to take a second stab at at at, you know, or bite
at the apple to try and kill something or or whatever the case might be. Okay. Councilman Fernandez, I I'm not going to support the item. Um, I just feel that it's makes the agenda more cumbersome and and I think the onus is on us to follow up with with uh staff
in regards to and spec specifically through the manager, but to follow up on one of your items. So, I I I'm just not going to support it. Councilman Sanchez. The only thing is that I would say is that if we end up putting this on the agenda that we also have to remember that the staff isn't only working on the
items that we're presenting. They also have other duties. So if we don't see a lack of progress on a specific thing, we also have to remember that they have other duties besides what we're asking them to do. That's the only thing I ask I ask for like a reminder of that. Councilman Garcia.
Thank you, Mayor. Now, and I understand your your point. Um, now we're already getting manager reports and reports that we've asked for, you know, we've asked reports for items, they they come up. Um, would you be open to a motion to add it to to manager report that um reports
that are due and where they are in status, vice mayor, of either they're working on, they haven't got to, they're 100% 50% complete, 100% complete, and when when it is due to be reported in the manager report in the report section. I think though the vice mayor's
point is that it's not really meant to be a verbal report so much as just if a council member sees that something's not moving then they have the opportunity to ask questions uh when they see it. So it's more of just a list with an with a potential for a discussion but it's not a manager's report where a staffer comes
in and and gives a a presentation on where each item's at or anything like that. But if that that list of where each item is at is included in the paperwork of the manager's report on on every council meeting, we can see it in we can see it and we can say okay and we can ask questions toward that. Is that
something that you'd be open to? I I if it's going to be more palpable to my colleagues then then absolutely. Uh I just think that it needs to be on there and the opportunity right now we have the opportunity to make motions on the infrastructure report uh based on
whatever comes up there. Uh, so it would be no different here. Um, so Councilman Garcia, are you making a motion? Yeah, I would I I'm making a motion to add that list of deliverables that that your reports you're working on to be added to the agenda every month uh
somewhere in the manager report so we can actually look at it and see and we'll be able to ask questions toward that and actually see, you know, where we are in the where they are in the process. Just more something something visual we can see. Well, well, remember he's making a motion. So, first needs to be uh second.
I was going to accept it as a friendly. No, no, no. That still needs to be voted on or it still needs a uh it needs to be moved and seconded. So, he moved it. Is there a second? Second. All right. It's been seconded. Now, any discussion on the amendment as proposed by council? Just to be clear, what you're saying is
what I'm saying. Just incorporate it into it as a portion of the manager's reports on a monthly basis. Yes. All right. Well, I have some comments on that. I I again a and I hate to be the the the negative Nancy uh you know this meeting
it's not personal um but you know for so long after the six and a half years that I've been here I've been working very hard to make sure our meetings are more efficient that we're having substantive meetings rather than meetings that you know based on my past experience are going to be more you know for show or at least you know not going to accomplish
much right um and the problem I see here especially with this amendment All right. To bring it back to the amendment is that I think that by putting in the manager manager report, it's going to be more likely to slow things down. In fact, one of my big issues uh with some of these reports is that we're just
adding on report after report. I mean, look how long it took for us to finally get between the committee reports and the manager reports to get to the substance of the meeting, right? That is what we're here for at the end of the day. and you know what what I think and and you know perhaps I'll I'll actually reserve the rest of my comments for when
we get back to the main item right not to run far a field but there are better ways to accomplish this very thing um and and I actually have a system in place right now it which I use for that um but with that are there any other any is there any other discussion on uh the
amendment on the amendment okay seeing none madam clerk please call the role so on the amendment. Council member Garcia, yes. Council member Hzburg, no.
Council member Cuadra Garcia, I would like uh I mean I didn't I didn't know that this job was so we're voting. Councilman, I need to I don't understand the Then you should have asked questions before we proceeded to vote. Sir, what is your
So I'm going to say a no. Okay. Council member Fernandez, no. Council member Sanchez, yes. Vice Mayor Morera, yes. Mayor Diegas, no.
The amendment fails. Back on the main item, what I want to say here is that what I currently have had in place since before I became mayor is a a list, right? a running docu a running living document uh in which the deputy town manager and my assistant
previously Victoria when I was on the council um they every two weeks they send me back an email with the status of all the items that I proposed that are still pending right so just as what you're proposing whenever I see something is sitting in the same
progress level for too long that there's been no update since two months ago or three months ago I always send an email to the manager you know asking to get me an update on what's the holdup right? Or I or I call a meeting as I did recently with the public works director and with the manager to say, "Hey, why, for
example, on the sign consolidation item that that we had passed almost a year and a half ago as well, why are we still stuck on the same progress bar for for so long?" Um, you know, again, I believe that that that is a a less cumbersome way of going about it. Um, I don't I
don't see a problem with perhaps uh and and maybe I'll make this motion then, you know, to go ahead and and and you know, require that staff provide that update uh for the council internally like we do with the Miami Lakes Connect report. But again, I just don't want to
to do anything that's going to open up a Pandora's box related to, you know, uh having discussions that that we can have internally or directly with the manager. Uh, and in essence, you know, while we want to hold staff accountable, again, there there's a way to do that. Doesn't
always have to be in a public meeting. I agree with you that that the public many times, you know, they criticize the pace of things or whether or not we're doing stuff. Um, you know, but unfortunately the issue there is is that they just don't, you know, keep up with the meetings, right? You know, so I'll second your motion.
Well, the motion Yeah. So, yeah. Okay. Yeah. But just to restate it for the clerk's benefit, it would be a strike all amendment that would simply require that uh for the council items, right, that the that the council assistant uh would go ahead and forward them. I I
don't know if you want the frequency to be every two weeks like like I do or uh two weeks and everyone's items, not just That's why I said the council. Yeah. Mayor, can can I just recommend something? Sure. Following this meeting, within a few
days, we hold a staff meeting. We do it virtually. So the there's all of the executive staff, the administration staff. We have probably, you know, 15 people on there. So anything we go over the entire list of everything that's outstanding and we go item by item. We
do updates. Maria maintains it. It's on a spread Excel spreadsheet. She puts updates as people are giving them. I give people a hard time when they're not uh when they're not doing things. and people give me feedback, give me ideas or give me reasons why things are not moving. They we put and then Maria
updates the status. We do that once a month following this meeting usually less than a week after. So, uh for us to provide it every two weeks, it would just be dup duplicitive. So, I think that it would be best to just do duplicative duplicative
duplicate has a different meaning too. So, I think that we should do it. My recommendation would be for it to be once a month because if not, it's going to be the same thing twice. If there's a specific ask on a specific project, obviously we can handle those item by item, but that's
I think it should be every two weeks. Yeah, I mean I think every two weeks is fine. If they end up being the same, that's fine, but there also could be action that develops within the twoe gap, you know. So, you know, I I think everybody will be understanding that there may not be a change, but you know,
if there is a change within that gap, you know, then I think they'd want to know sooner rather than later. Um, and again, if you already have that master list, it it it should be relatively easy to go ahead and convert that into just uh um well, before you go, Councilman Sanchez, let me finish making uh the
amendment. So the strike all amendment um is uh for every two weeks the council to receive a report related to pending council items um you know and to specifically include the status of where the staff is with implementing those
items. Right. Um so that is the the the amendment second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion on this amendment? Councilman Sanchez. Yeah. So a prime example of this is the email just came in today. it was the no left turn at Bob Graham and the status from the county and they their
willingness to not proceed with it. Um, as soon as I saw the email, I, you know, I turned around. So, if I have to wait an entire month to get an update on that instead of every two weeks, it slows down the process of me reaching out to the department and saying, "Hey, we have a lot more information than what you think we have." And that's why, you
know, they're setting up meetings and other things to to see what we can do next. So I do agree with the two weeks just because it brings up uh brings us up to speed a lot sooner. Yeah. I mean whenever I get things that are unique to one council member the other I I you know I send it to you the moment I get it. I don't wait for that
uh afteraction meeting to happen and the status to be up you know that's like today I got that today. I sent it to you right away and then you know you made a phone call. So those things you know if it's something that is the mayors or the vice mayors or one of the other council member I send it as soon as I get it. if
it's something that is your your concern. Yeah. So that wouldn't require I wouldn't you would you wouldn't have been waiting a month on that. Okay. Yeah. And something else that if I can recommend to it is also since the agenda item was presented by me but it became a a deis it became our item when it was
approved is instead of sending the email to just me and sending it to all of us so we're all informed as to the status of the project of that specific item. Now the motion was for for all the county items to be on that report. Yeah, like the email today was just to me. No, no, I understand. But I'm just say Oh, okay. Yeah. But yeah, but the motion
that I just presented includes everybody. Yeah. Right. Okay. Councilman Herszburg. Sorry. This one clarification and and maybe it it's a new business item in the future. Does this list have something in like the last three years? How do at some point some an item that has no
motion or no movement has to die? Right. So my question is and and maybe the town attorney or maybe it's an idea for a new business item once we pass this is how do you how does a council at some point decide when does something that has had no movement and I have an idea I have
two items in mind that I've decided are not good ideas how do we get it off the list? That's my only concern. I mean I'm voting yes on this. I like this. It's just that's all my understanding is that it's just until there's final resolution. So, if it comes back, as in the case of the no
left turn, that it can't be done. Well, then that that ends the the staff's work at that point because it's run its natural course. But, Mr. Attorney, do you have anything else? No, Mr. Mayor. Uh, that's that's correct. I I mean, the way that it it usually ends supposed to. I mean, obviously, it's not 100% foolproof is
that if the item really cannot move forward, then there's a report back from staff saying, I mean, your items are usually to either come up with a law or to come up with some kind of an action. It's usually that those are the two general. So either it passes or so it's either a laws coming back before
you or the action is going to say hey we can't do it for whatever reason and then it dies. Okay. Clear enough. Okay. With that on the amendment um all those in favor say I. I. I. All oppose. No. The eyes have it and the
main item is amended. We're back on the main motion as amended. Um, any further discussion on this item? Okay, seeing none, uh, all those in favor say I. I. I. All oppose, no. The eyes have it. The the motion
carries. Mr. Vice Mayor, you're recognized for the second part of your item. Thank you. Um, so aside from the what was just approved, I also wanted to move and by the way, this motion will require a twothirds vote pursuant to section 7.7
of the special rules um to reflect uh a while back when when the November elections had just passed, we actually rearranged our agenda. Uh section 3.1 of the special rules actually sets the order of this agenda.
It was not updated. So, I would just like to ask that the staff come back to us with uh an ordinance ordinance, I believe, uh or resolution resolution uh amending section 3.1 to reflect the current uh order of business to make it
up to date. Second. So, this is like a glitch bill that it's just uh Okay. All right. So, it's been moved and seconded. Any discussion on this? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. All oppose? No. The eyes have it and the twothirds mark has been reached on
both the items. With that, we are on I know there's nobody that submitted a council report, but is there anybody that has any announcements perhaps before we uh close out the meeting? Okay. Uh seeing none, this meeting is adjourned at 10:25 p.m.