##VIDEO ID:6YTbRH5OZdU## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e wa don't here e off were everybody needs to have it in case you need it this was the cost of the special election that was held in April and the runoff and the runoff an additional so just for you guys $80,000 got see e e e e e e e e everyone please take your seats today is January 21st the time is 6:35 Madame clerk please uh call the role council member Garcia pres council member Quadra Garcia president council member Fernandez president council member hburg present vice mayor morera present mayor Diez here mayor you have Quorum excellent would everyone please rise I think this is out of order so what the the way I'll go about this is councilman herberg please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please remain standing uh and councilman Garcia please lead us in a moment of prayer thank you heavenly father as We Gather for this council meeting we humbly ask for your guidance and wisdom in our deliberations May our discussions be filled with respect understanding and a commitment to serving the greater good grant us discernment to make decisions that reflect your will and bring positive change to our community we pray for Unity in our purpose and the courage to act with Integrity in Jesus name amen you may be seated we are now on the order of business deferrals additions and deletions um for myself I will be moving item 14 C to immediately after public comments are there any other proposed changes yes through the chair councilman Garcia I would uh ask if we can move the mental health task force report in front of before the blasting Advisory Board someone has to get home and do homework and uh we want to make sure that she gets there on time so uh so just moving that ahead of blasting yes ahead of blasting if possible okay thank you so much are there any other uh further changes okay just to go over them one more time 14 c is now after item six and 8B will be heard before item 8 a is there a motion so move is there a second second EXC all those in favor say I I I all oppose no the eyes have it and the motion carries with that we are now on public comments Madam clerk please read the ru rules good evening and welcome to the regular council meeting I'm just going to briefly go over some rules of public comments and it is that today we're starting the meeting each speaker who wants to participate in public comments just please approach the podium state your name and address for the record and you have 3 minutes and please I'm going to emphasize all comments or questions from this public shall be always directed to the mayor in a courtious tone and to ensure the orderly conduct and efficiency of the meeting public comments will be limited to three minutes and welcome as well to the people that we have via Zoom um if you want to participate and provide your remote public comments the only thing you need to do is please press the asterisk number nine and it help desk will be able to see your rais hand icon and they will allow you into the meeting and welcome please again if you're here for public comments it is now the moment to approach the podium state your name and address for the record okay just for clarity one more time uh this is an opportunity for public comments you will be giving three minutes to speak on any subject you have uh would like whether it's on the agenda or not you may do so by just simply coming up uh to the podium and have uh and then at that point introduce yourself name and address uh the town clerk will then begin the timer and you have the three minutes to go ahead and make your remarks and then the next speaker will will simply follow as soon as uh the prior one finishes and yes there you go good evening good evening uh my name is Kimberly trellis and my address is 15808 Northwest 91st Avenue okay um good evening mayor uh good evening council members my name is Kimberly trellis and I am the owner of the trellis Cottage a small business in Miami Lakes for over eight years I'm here to speak in favor of agenda item 14f which directly impacts my business and businesses just like mine I was recently denied a business tax receipt due to a zoning issue Our Town should adapt to Modern retail challenges like many small businesses I don't need a large space or standard operating hours my shop serves as a showroom where customers can see our products in person by appointment or through social media uh flexible this flexible approach keeps costs manageable and meets Community needs agenda item 14 f is a Lifeline for small businesses like mine raising retail space Sorry raising Rising retail space costs make it nearly impossible for us to compete with larger operations allowing for flexible use of smaller spaces not only supports local entrepreneurs but also ensures Miami Lakes retains its charm and unique community-driven businesses your support of this measure would provide an opportunity for businesses like mine to reopen and Thrive contributing to the local economy and fostering a diverse Vibrant Community thank you for considering this important step forward thank you for your comments our next speaker good evening name and address please yes Armando Gonzalez my address is 8725 Northwest 145th Terrace miam Lakes uh good evening mayor and members of the council and fellow residents of Miami Lakes my name name is Dr Armando Gonzalez I am proud I'm a proud resident of Miami Lakes and the co-founder of Miami Lakes Med Spa alongside my wife Dr Sabrina Gonzales I am here tonight to speak on behalf of my friend Alejandro Sanchez who is running for a position on this Council Alejandro and I go way back we were classmates at Barbara Gman Senior High School class of 2002 over the years I have seen him grow into an exceptional individual he is a dedicated family man and a proud veteran who served our country with honor Alejandra's love for this town and his unwavering commitment to serving the community are evident in everything he does I strongly recommend Alejandro Sanchez for this position I believe he has the leadership vision and dedication necessary to make a meaningful and positive impact on Miami Lakes thank you for your time and consideration thank you very much good to see you is there another speaker good evening honorable mayor the the members of the cabinet and fellow residents of Miami Lakes I'm sorry uh name and add my name is Orlando del Castillo 14411 Cedar Court over the many years I've had the privilege of witnessing the growth and evolution of this Vibrant Community and I am honored to speak here today about my friend neighbor an extraordinary individual Alejandro Alex Sanchez Alex is not just a friend he's a pillar of our neighborhood as a veteran he D dedicated his life to serving our country and now he continues to serve the community in countless ways Alex is the kind of person who always takes the time to greet everyone with a smile ask about their families and offer a helping hand whenever needed he is deeply invested and in in the well-being of the people around him and makes a genu genuine effort to connect with each of us in a personal level one of the many examples of Alex's commitment to our community is his dedication and keeping us informed of local events and initiatives thanks to Alex we were all made aware of the Christmas golf C parade that brought joy to all of us in the neighborhood his enthusias ASM and thorness the Community Pride is unmatched Alex Sanchez embodies the qualities of a leader he is deeply passionate about ensuing that the voices of Miami lakes's residents are heard and respected I have no doubt that as a member of the city council Alex will work tirelessly tirelessly to put the needs and interests of the community at the Forefront of every decision he makes I am not alone in recognizing Alex's leadership and dedication our own mayor has endorsed Alex Sanchez for city council a testament to the trust and confidence of our local leadership and his abilities tonight I ask that all of you join me in supporting and endorsing Alex Sanchez for city council together we can elect the leader who will represent us in his integrity and compassion and unwavering commitment to the people of Miami Lakes thank you come on up name and address good evening mayor Diez and Council I wasn't going to say anything this evening but something caught my eye on the agenda and I have to speak out um I don't know what this legalization of artificial turf is about I'll have to hear but I hope to Heaven it's not that you're going to legalize the use of artificial turf because it is one of the worst things you could do for our environment it it impedes drainage natural drainage and we always have those problems here in Miami Lakes as it is so it's just because some people get lazy and they don't feel like doing their trimming or having it done and that's why they're pushing maybe for artificial turf I could see it right around the rim of a swimming pool but that's the only place I think it should ever be adopted or used thank you thank you very much is there another public speaker ma'am please approach the podium welcome back good evening L ladies and gentlemen good evening beloved neighbors of Miami Lakes I'm a resident of this town for 47 years my name is Lee Medina and I live in 1443 1 CED Court Miami Lakes Florida I'm here to show my support and to thank you all of you councilmen to consider voting on in favor of a wonderful leader a wonderful Community man like Alejandro Sanchez um Alejandro Sanchez came into my life when he moved in C court and that's when I noticed that he has the quality of a community man a leader a man that is there for you regardless of regardless of anything he will go above and beyond the Call of Duty to accommodate people in in this town especially me I'm here to thank him from the bottom of my heart that he has treated me perhaps mightbe hopefully not disrespectful to his beloved mother but he's almost treated me like like his mom and and so has his wife Jackie so this is the kind of people that we need in Miami Lakes to run this town and I thank you mayor Josh diez for having the wisdom and and the right attitude and don't you resarch to nominate Alejandra Sanchez to become our councilman for the next two years and I am just grateful and I just wanted to to ratify um to all of you that yes there are many of us maybe some might not have been able to make it tonight uh me myself I'm not in the best shape of my health I guess this weather doesn't seem to favor the pain on my lower back but I'm here because I I owe this to my community I owe this to all of you to let you know that Alejandra Sanchez is a person of quality it's a trustworthy man and I thank him for humbly accepting his nomination for for the council and and I really thank all of you to to to work on on on voting for him because you are acquiring an asset needed at the Miami Lakes Council thank you so much thank you ma'am next speaker name and address please good evening mayor council my name is David comp I live at 6914 bottle brush Drive I've been a member of a resident of Miami Lakes for about 35 years uh I came tonight to discuss item 14 I but before I do I just want to mention Alejandro is uh one of my neighbors uh I know him to be an active member of the community good father good husband keeps his yard clean guy's an all around all-around great guy so I'm I'm going to definitely support him here tonight as well okay as to 14 I uh like most that are here I read the article in the newspaper about um homeowner being cided for having a trump flag in his yard um and I also saw the interview on Instagram and I was pretty upset about it because I think that we should be allowed to express how we feel about our you know call it president Trump uh we shouldn't hide that anymore woke is dead and we shouldn't be intimidated in addition to that with all the issues that we have here in the town of Mii Lakes I think the last thing we need to worry about is whether or not someone has a trump flag or not I am a trump supporter I'm proud of that if my neighbor had a Hillary or a Harris flag so be it doesn't bother me in my opinion so long as the flags don't uh depict pornography or profanity we should be allowed to express ourselves without fear of citation or intimidation and period end of story so I'm here to I don't know the law I don't know what the the the code says but I do think whatever it says it needs to be revised so that we're allowed to express our eles sure support for president Trump okay he won by an overwhelming majority which says everything I think we need to know here and as far as that owner that was cited I don't know him but I tell him keep your flag up let's start to go fund me we're going to pay for those citations if you guys don't have the courage here tonight to change the rule thank you very much is uh the next speaker please see we got a couple it's okay name and address sir good evening good evening my name is Louis Moreno 1820 West 53rd Street hi Aaliyah um I'm here on behalf of epilepsy Alliance Florida um with the hopes of do having a partnership with the uh city of town of um Miami Lakes I am their community resource specialist and my hopes is to come to you all and to uh have a partnership where we can come into your City and teach and educate people of all Races all colors all languages about epilepsy and seizures and convulsions currently one out of 10 people will have a seizure within their lifetime one out of 26 people will be labeled epileptic Florida has over 550,000 people living in the State of Florida with seizures we are number one out of all 50 and 90 to 110,000 are children under the age of 10 so I'm the community resource specialist for Miami day County and my job is to be out in the community I do workshops I was a former High School teacher for 22 years and now I teaching about seizures and epilepsy so we would like to come to you all the mayor and the council members I brought some brochures and some information for all of you so that you know how prevalent it is and so that we can share to together and teach people I have been here before I have done a training um in November for about 20 of the constituents of your of your uh the members of haia I'm sorry Miami Lakes and um everything went well so I ask you to please join me in partnering with epilepsy Alliance Florida so we can make epilepsy seizures and convulsions for people that are living with this which by the way has no cure epilepsy has no cure I suffered from seizures when I was younger and I know a lot of people that do so this is very important to me as a person as a worker and I want to bring it to everybody all throughout Florida but starting with Miami Leakes thank you very much have a good evening thank you very very much sir before you leave Tony can you get his contact info put him together with uh clarisel there there's CL there so there she is she's hiding so we can we have several uh okay but let's start with uh getting you in touch with the right uh we have resident committees and the Committees they're the ones that can maybe spearhead this on your behalf maybe we'll find the right committee that that'll work and we'll we'll make it something like that thank you very much for coming tonight Mr senro good evening my name is Fred SRA and I'm a resident of Miami Lakes for the last uh I don't know 40 some years um my address is 144 40 breckness plays I hardly ever say the address Miami Lakes and um I think we've I've come to uh speak to you guys here um regarding the um item 14 C I believe that's the fill the vacancy of uh seat 4 and I've heard all the support here for Alex I've known Alex for many many years I wrote a letter of support for him as well uh but I want to give it a little turn a little different turn Okay I want to be a little practical and what i' like to remind you of is the following Believe last year we had a similar situation with uh a lady being nominated by the mayor I think it was for whatever the reason uh that happened it turned out to be that the council did not approve her even though I thought she was extremely qualified um and um and uh we had to go to a special election that's what the council chose I'm going to tell you that I think that's a mistake it's a big mistake because I don't think we need to spend $35,000 which is what this special election cost us last year to elect somebody for a year and a half term or two-year term okay um not only that but if you recall none of the two members not the two participants got enough votes for you know you know to be elected so we had to spend another $35,000 in a special election couple months later or whatever I thought that was really really bad because I don't think we need to spend $70,000 to elect one person for a seat for a year and a half or two years not only that but the disappointing uh I think the most disappointing part of it for me was that I think we got less than 5% of the votes of the uh eligible votes in the town so to have somebody being an elected with less than 5% I think you guys here can make a a more intelligent decision tonight or whenever you're going to uh select to do this and uh and I'm sure that Alex is going to do a great job you know I've known him through the veterans and what have you so I think I just want to make sure that you guys realize that and I just wanted to put some numbers and remind you it's okay you have 15 seconds to complete your remarks thank you welcome good evening Miriam campus 6801 dunun Court Miami Lakes I've been a resident of Miami Lakes over 32 years I love it and I I like to get involved because you you know that's how we keep the town in good conditions okay um I'm going to talk about two issues Saturday I receive a letter well I work my butt off to get president Trump elected and I I had two signs in my front yard and I told everybody I say if after the 20th I'm going to take them down but not before so I received a letter Saturday that I had to take them down because I was going to get a fine so I said well if I had to wait over the dates they told me I'm going to go to the town and ask for permission to keep him for a few extra days so I really didn't want to take him down but I did today because now I'm settled down I'm happy um about the elections we have a few um candidates that have run for the seats here and they all deserve to be you know candidates um and they have been volunteers and they always work with the town so I think it's better if we choose someone that was already in the campaign trail and I really will go for Hassan because he's a very good person here and he cares for the town a lot so thank you very much and have a good evening thank you very much sir name and address uh Ronaldo Angulo I'm invoking statute 119 all right so good evening uh mayor councel uh I'm here on behalf of uh Alexander Sanchez I've known him for quite a while he's uh residents of Miami Lakes he's in a lot of the Committees that you guys have here the veterans and let's go back to the veterans he's a veteran of the the Navy okay that's that's a big one here for us um he's in been like I said he was in multiple committees for the neighbor for the for the town so people know him he's dedicated he's a good neighbor around family man always with the kids the wife that's what you need somebody that's dedicated and I he shows to us the neighbors that he's dedicated so I feel that he'll continue that and I can't I don't have the voice Orlando has so I'm I'm through here that's okay thank you sir name and address hi good to see you again hi thank you my name is Larry Borman I'm a longtime resident of Miami Lakes I first moved here in 1972 I've been my president homes for the past 26 years um in the veterans committee it's where I first met Alex very very professional I enjoyed working with him I'm also in the uh I'm the president of Lake Martha homeowners association and I'm also the uh Vice commander of the uh American Legion postor 44 uh for all the reasons Fred sry gave us for the wisdom of our mayor I ask that the council nominate Alex for C4 he's very very worthy and I want to endorse him thank you very much Colonel good evening mayor good evening council members Madam clerk Town manager City attorney uh William Perez 7167 bound TR Court I've been in Miami Lakes residence for 50 years I just did the math I couldn't believe it except for my 38 years I was in rine Corps and you know running around but it was always my home record it's on my DD214 anyhow um I want to talk about two items first is 14i which is the political Flags uh the case on point is Reed versus town of Gilbert the first thing you got to realize is you're going to have strict scrutiny applied which means that what the town has to show that is the ordinance is narrowly tailored and it's the list restrictive means you're going to have a problem with that I've actually did First Amendment case when I was in in the military I was a Judge Advocate um and I actually did a First Amendment case and we lost and we thought it was a total winner because it was on Bas and Bas is not a public forum but it was a s employee with a bumper sticker that said some foul things about a previous president and we lost you have in this situation even worse fact pattern you have it on private property ours was a military base but it was a on a private vehicle all right you have it on a permanent flag pole attached to a house which is real property you also have a flag which I would argue is not a temporary political flag uh sign for an election I would say that that flag is more akin to a team flag like someone hanging up a u ofm flag FSU flag basically I'm team Trump right that's what they're saying so for all those reasons because of the factual distinction between Reed and Gilbert because of the strict scrutiny that you have to apply and because of the fiscal matters that we just U Mr senro was talking about you should carve out something for a non-temporary flag attached to a flag pole attached to a real property or mount on a flag pole that is obviously not for the election period U I believe and if you take this to court you will you will lose but you know you don't have to rely my on my legal experience um second issue I want to talk about is my support for Alex you have my letter recommendation for Alex but I understand the situation you're in you know we have elected you and we have uh impune upon you our special trust and confidence but you have a tough decision you have a person who has a great background served in the Navy for three years did all volunteer service and you have to make that decision against the fundamental right to vote to have the people choose no matter how few people do choose the right to choose um I do not envy your position I'm glad I'm not on the de but you have to do make a choice thank you very much thank you so much next speaker okay there he is name and address please good evening Eddie saniel uh 16232 Northwest 85th Court Miami Lakes um and also a business owner at 8140 Northwest 155th Street um so I wanted to share my support for agenda item 14 F uh which was presented by uh councilman morera um it's uh something that will solve an issue with multiple sort of on online retailers and rezoning certain areas of the town to allow for a limited retail and creating that I think it's really important because at this point um those businesses small businesses don't have a place in the town that is Affordable that they're able to do sort of limited online retail and still have a storefront where people could pick things up up and basically just um uh operate a business um not a full-time retail like the shops here and and all that so I just that's that's it thank you have a great evening please come on up name and address sir good evening 8515 Northwest 169 Terrace home Cru Mr Mayor vice mayor of council um the flag item I I think that's something that uh we're going to have to revise the code and go there's a lot more than that and you guys know we have the Florida statue that uh goes uh Beyond and explains very well uh what's the issue with the flag and even we as a town I don't think we can go beyond the specific specifications of of of what the the state allows or not so the other item uh last year in April we were here and two of you guys were sitting on the hat seat like today making a decision whether you will vote for Miriam to be to serve for nine months and I know that the vote was split one of you say yes and the other one wanted a special election sort of Miriam was going to serve for only 9 months in this case it's almost two years we have a big issue with the shter and we know that the shter needs to be changed because uh a lot of things need to be upgraded after 25 years of being a town I've known Al Alejandra for a long time great guy so I've known the other eight as well when Fred said that uh we had an election and we spent $35,000 and then we had a runoff when Brian went out Knock on a lot of doors and did his homework here we have a gentleman that just run in November and got 7,500 votes but Mr cuadra Garcia got 82 so he got elected so why not Mr Mario with 7500 votes for Alex Mario applied for that position as well so the Mr naib and then I know that that the the the the issue Mr Mayor is that you are the only one that can make the decision out of those eight who can you appoint but then none of you are free of not being there as well because you guys have to decide yes or no so today we can go 42 we can go 3 three another thing that I could never understand is when we had in April that a special election six people register to run for the position November comes and we have two great guys here that are are more than qualified to serve and I told you guys from day one they run un opposed what happened from six people including Brian Brian makes it everybody else is gone now everybody wants a free ride because nobody wants to go out there and knock on doors and do what a campaign has to be done so I'm in total disagreement with that it's nothing against you Alex I wish I wouldn't be here having to fight this but my values are not negotiable and I expect and I hope that you guys tonight you you will do the right thing and allow 8 n 10 when the letter came out in December a lot of people were already on vacation they didn't even know the most I gave a power speaker was 15 seconds extra to wrap it up so that's why I just want okay if you can please but again I hope that you guys will do the right thing tonight and we will have an special election and let the residents of Miami like to decide who should be sitting on that chair thank you thank you next speaker name and address sir please good evening uh my name is Eric uh 14604 Northwest 87th Place uh I've been a resident of Miami late for 11 years as an American citizen I believe my first amendment rights are being violated when the city requests that I remove my Trum flags as a Cuban American I view Trump as the only individual capable of steering this country in the right direction Trump is our president and the majority of the country support him how is it possible that I am being prevented from displaying his flag on my property I would i' like to request a referendum to repeat the city ordinance that prohibits sign on private property while I may encounter flags of organization with which I disagree I believe that freedom of expression is ENT shined in the First Amendment for a reason and must be respected of course signs that promote violence pornography or anything that goes against the moral and the chrisan values upon which nation was funded should be prohibited terrorist organization as well as ideology such as Nazism and socialism to be also ban thank you thank you very much name and address good evening council members my name is Diane Jimenez I'm a student of Barbara Gman Senior High School um well first of all I'm here to support Alex for his nomination for the for the council and I just want to point for the record there's a clear distinction in my in my humble opinion from this nomination and the nomination um from from last time especially due to the fact that none of us are blind like like like let's look at the elephant in the room last last nomination there was there was a lot more important things regarding the budget that you know that that were that were important that wouldn't have given that that council member enough time to look to look over in my opinion um I think that there's that there's a number of reasons that we should you know we should support Alex uh he served in in the Navy he he's a veteran so so there's a lot to to take into account furthermore um a special election right now would be very expensive uh on top of the fact that we have 1 two 3 four five six seven New Town staff employees which I think we should definitely take a look at um why they're being hired uh what's the point of their of them being hired um not that I have anything against them at all but uh I also want to express my support for item 14g the Dodge Advisory Board uh regarding government efficiency because if we want to have an efficient government obviously I think the mo the more conservative way to go about it is to not hire as many people so if we just do simple math $100,000 on a special election right now we have again seven people if my mouth not off being hired let's say that they get a $50,000 salary a little bit less 30,000 this is one of the most expensive agendas and it's the first one of the year uh that I've seen Come Out of This Town Council um so when it comes to government efficiency I think we should have that at the top of our list and you know Merit is something that that's been thrown around a lot especially due to the fact that we're now in the Golden Age of America but I I think that the word logic is something that we should also be be be using right logic let's just be logical um 14 I the political Flags it I think that the aspect of the political Flags is it's there's a difference between a sign and and a flag signs have much more you know much more requirements to put up that the town you know can enforce the law in a different way but I believe that a political flag is a symbol so it just puts it just puts the town priorities onto something that really you know you know we should be F focusing on a lot of other stuff and on top of that in order to be a little bit more efficient in government um I had brought it up to vice mayor I think we should Institute some sort of program where we get interns to help out the council and not necessarily invest so much into new positions and increasing you know and wasting so much Town Town dollars on top of the fact that we might even go into a special election so thank you very much uh forgot to thank the Town Clerk and the town manager and the town attorney thank you guys thank you very much is there another speaker in Chambers going Lindsay are you gonna mayor okay we do going uh well just in terms of here just going once going twice none okay now go ahead and please see if we have any speakers uh on Zoom we do we do I see several and I was um told that Mr andrees Drew has been patiently waiting good evening sir we see your name on the TV screen just unmute yourself sure welcome you have three I have a camera are you guys you guys able to hear me we yes we we can hear you go ahead name and address please everybody uh my name is andrees I go by Drew I see a lot of familiar faces in the audience uh address is hold on give me a second because I just recently moved so uh 7971 Northwest 175th Street um I was in Miami Lakes up until late last year and so I uh and because the vicinity this all of this affects me and also being a small business owner so I'm talking on um 14f uh the small business agenda and situation with the zoning uh as most of you know I am a small business owner and it's not been easy it's been extremely rough and uh last year we finally were able to save up enough to be able to uh rent a warehouse and primarily our business is mostly online we do some stuff locally for other businesses and things like that if I had some sort of option to step up to instead of jump into it would have been great um being online I don't necessarily have people coming to my place uh I did have every now and then some people coming over um I was operating out of a shed in the backyard of my parents house uh for for those of you that didn't know tada now you do um yeah I I think that this should be looked into um I'm definitely a big supporter of small business because I am a small business but even then I think that it's a good stepping stone it also will stop you from having neighbors um receiving shipments to their house next to you and operating a business next to you at home right this gives them the next step up um and and as far as I I just joined and I caught a little bit of Fred and the few other people um I cannot speak based upon the politics I don't know how that works I can speak upon the uh character of Alejandro as long as I've known him he's been a great guy very uh thoughtful supportive um he's uh you know he's always constantly reminding people about things in the town and and getting people riled up for for the activities and events and posting about the uh um golf cart uh parades and that's that's pretty much all I have to cover um thank you guys I'm sorry I couldn't be there in person being a small business owner guess where I'm at running a business thank you drew and good luck with durm um with that Gina anyone else I see another name I mean another person another participant I don't know if that person is just listening and no name iPhone that's all the information so it if that person is also waiting patiently for public comments just you know allow them to be able to um speak otherwise mayor Diez um that is it I'll give him five seconds one absolutely two three four five last call okay with that public comments is now closed mayor dieas uh point of personal PR um I'd like to move to amend the order of business to bring 14f to after the two committee reports just because I didn't realize that we were going to have that much uh speakers on 14f and one of the people who spoke on it did notify me that they uh only had child care until 8:00 pm so want to get him out of here okay so the vice mayor would like to reopen the order of business that's first and foremost is there is there a second second second all those in favor say I I may one one second uh the motion carries coun Garcia go ahead thank you mayor we've had some like four or five people walk in during public comments here in the audience if there's anybody else maybe we can ask anybody else wants to speak here in the in the chambers what did they come in while while they were were listening to Andre okay we'll come back to that in a second right now we're amending the order of business which again the vice May vice mayor would like to move item 14f to after 8 a which remember 8A will now come after 8 correct um and I myself also in light of the number of public speakers that we have on my item with respect to 14 uh got to look at this again 14 L I would request that we also move that to right after 14f are there any other CH uh proposed changes so moved second excellent it's been moved and seconded all those in favor say I I oppose no the motion carries and the agenda is now amended and we are now with uh following public comments on 14 C the nomination of Mr Alex Sanchez to the council vacancy on seed 4 um being that this is my item I'll go ahead and introduce it um just to kind of for those that are watching or may watch this later I want to preserve an excellent public record about how we got here and and why I nominated Mr Alex Sanchez to serve um a here uh as part of uh a before I get there actually because I just realized that you you wanted to uh was there anyone else who had walked in when Mr uh I always butcher his last name when Drew was speaking that would like to speak in public comments okay seeing none uh I I'll continue then with uh with my motion so as you know Florida Florida state law requires that a candidate cannot hold more than one office at a time right being that I was running for mayor of Miami Lakes at the time that I was also serving the middle of my second term as a council member Florida law requires that I submit an irrevocable letter of resignation 10 days before the qualifying period begins uh stating that that I will resign and naming a resignation date uh in my case I had set it so that it would the resignation would take effect uh either November 5th in the first round if I was able to take it in the first round or following a runoff election if one was required obviously we needed one so I was able to stay on until uh this uh uh the day of the second round which was November 26th following that of course uh we have this vacancy that the the town Charter requires that we fill within 30 days of the vacancy occurring so we had 30 days from November 26 um um the the the town Charter in article 2.5 does not give any discretion to the mayor to not name someone to this position right it the the exact verbiage is that the mayor shall name somebody to the vacancy um with that said I I started thinking about potential candidates I will be honest that I did have a preferred candidate in mind um he ended up I thought he would have had a great skill set up here especially as we uh later would uh uh look into the uh the contracts with our police um given his experience as the general counsel for Miami day College um but he ultimately after speaking with his family determined it was not a good opportunity uh to go ahead and and serve at this time at that point I decided to create an application process which has never been done before in the town of Miami Lakes to fill this vacancy right councilwoman Rano uh had never previously run at um in 2017 and she was ultimately named directly by mayor Sid um after her obviously Mary Manis was uh you know who had never remember before was also selected um but ultimately was not appointed to the vacancy in seat six prior to that we had uh councilman George Lopez also who had not been a candidate Until Then Who was appointed by then mayor pizy and then we had the original appointment to a vacancy which was Doc cook um for a very short period of time there by mayor wine slay so this is the first time that this has ever been opened up to the broader public for anyone who would like to serve to go ahead and put their name forward we had eight applications come out of that process and the application was fairly comprehensive as far as uh explaining what it is that you would like to do if appointed and also uh you know divulging your level of involvement in the town of Miami Lakes right up until the appointment we had about a week or so for candidates to prepare and fill out the application and submit it by December 23rd I went ahead and met with my colleagues also something that has never been been done there's never been a sunshine meeting that I'm aware of between a mayor and his colleagues um to go ahead and and determine uh who should be named to this seat um but we went ahead and did that and we had a a meeting of the majority of the council there in which uh the two top contenders that emerged from that discussion were ultimately Alex Sanchez and na Hassan uh those were the two top contenders of all of the eight that had applied and from there they told me if I select one of them they would be on they would support it they both had excellent service records it's not to say that none of the other candidates um had excellent service records right Miss cologne who's here in the audience today has been very involved for a long time in the town of Miu Lakes especially with Zant um and has also again put her name forward and shown that she's not a coward that she has Courage by running uh not only in a special election but in a November election to answer Mr Cruz's Point um no no no I want I would like Mr Cruz though to to please hear me out because I want him to understand why you had six candidates in the spring special election but not in November right when you run in November unlike when you would have have had to in the spring you have to be out there for early voting for two weeks 12 hours a day non-stop right it's a much longer campaign where you have to appeal to a much broader electorate than the 10 133% that came out to vote in in the spring right so there were a few candidates more than a few candidates clearly who felt that running in Spring was an easier opportunity than running in November and that is why you see constantly that that increase in the number of candidates running in these off-ear elections and why you have less and less unfortunately willing to throw their names into a November election so I just wanted to take a moment to address that um but getting back to Mr Sanchez I think ultimately what swayed me and I think what swayed a a majority with my colleagues is the fact that the voters have not yet had an opportunity to weigh in on on his election right they at the end of the day he comes to us with a clean slate unfortunately uh other C the other candidates that have previously run while they have garnered votes they have demonstrated courage at the end of the day the community has said no and so I think they deserve an opportunity to have a new candidate that they can then um you know cast judgment on his votes um and and make a decision at that point which by the way the prior nominee for seat six had pledged even though it was for a shorter period of time had pledged not to run again and yet that person would have been casting votes on items like the the pizy litigation and other budget priorities that would have had long-term implications on the town and voters would never have an opportunity to cast judgment um to either hold that person accountable for their votes or not so I think Mr Sanchez who has pledged to to run again and that was a question in the application I think in 2 years or one and a half years however much it is exactly I think voters at that point will be will be getting the opportunity to cast their vote for him and determine whether or not they want to um to keep him or not to to render judgment on his record and I think personally he's going to do well he's a veteran uh been very involved in our community neighborhood Improvement the veteran affairs committee he was was our Grand Marshal he was a volunteer of the year um the the list goes on you know he's a decorated Navy veteran at that um so I think he he gets a I think he's a good candidate and I agree with my colleagues that he should be appointed and now ultimately that was back in on December 23rd when we had our meeting ultimately is the decision of this body if we want to go ahead and and continue uh in supporting Mr Sanchez I think we should because I also think and I want to take a moment to address this and I apologize that my remarks are running long but there's a lot to address right there's a lot that's been made about the fact that I voted to say no to the prior nominee I just want to be clear it was not say yes to a special election to say yes to a special election but rather I just simply did not agree that the nominee at that time was appropriate to fill in that position one of them was as I mentioned that candidate was not or that nominee was not going to be running again and therefore voters would not have an opportunity to render uh judge on their record despite the fact that they will be voting on a variety of long-term issues additionally um a that candidate compared to Mr Sanchez's record I think uh you know was not as involved as uh as you know as she could have been and uh lastly what I will say on that is the if you recall for those of you that go back into my remarks my issue was continuity so the issue that she was not running again was a big one for me and the issue of the lack of institutional we would have left after the election which would basically be myself and Mr Garcia as we have now I had concerned about the the that amount of institutional knowledge leaving this Das uh come uh November and because the special election would have gotten a candidate in there for the next two years and ultimately was vice mayor Mora it felt appropriate at the time to bolster the amount of institutional knowledge on this days to go with the special election but it wasn't about choosing the special election right it was about choosing uh to have the best qualified candidate in this position and within the grounds of the charter again the mayor is required to nominate and within 30 days the council says yes or no as soon as that nomination is made and if the council says no Then within 90 days or as soon as practical we have to have the special election because the charter wants us to fill the vacancy as quickly as possible right instead of having three three votes because there's different factions or whatever that Cas says the the charter wants us to move as quickly as possible to fill that vacancy so we're not paralyzed by political gains menhip so a that is that is why the mayor is given the first dibs under the charter if you if you know I'll use that term first dibs to go ahead and name a potential replacement but if that person does not Garner majority support from his colleagues uh from the mayor's colleagues then ultimately it goes to a special election but I just wanted to provide that Clarity there as far as how our Charter which is our town Constitution Works to explain some of the decisions uh that I made back last year and around this time and why I'm going a different route this time partly because I have to name somebody and partly because a I just think that ultimately he's a good uh uh choice for what we have now and change conditions we have more experience now on here vice mayor Mora now has a full Carry forward Amendment and a full uh budget cycle under his belt which is a complicated process so now we have three candid uh three members of the council here who are not going into it fresh um so it's a different circumstance I think we're we got a a better candidate in my view and I would urge uh that we nominate or rather approve the nomination of Mr Alex Sanchez uh to fill the seat for vacancy that is my motion second seconded by vice mayor Mora discussion uh Mr vice mayor do you want to go first I'll Reserve I'll go ahead uh councilman hburg thank you mayor um you know give my thought process on the vote first you're right you you made it a transparent process and I appreciate that and we had that Sunshine meeting the 23rd and and and discussed the candidate and to be very candidate and I and I I've said this to Mr Sanz Mr Sanz is not my first choice right and I told you that I actually like Mr Hassan I thought he had I like that he ran before right um and I've received various calls from residents about Mr Sanchez about Mr ass son but the vast majority of those calls have been well you he should have the mayor should have picked one person over the other I've only received one resident that says we should just have a special election right so the the way I see is just because you didn't pick my first choice doesn't mean it should be a no vote you pick someone who's qualified you pick someone who's committed you pick someone that literally puts his life on the line all right for our country he's clearly committed to this town and I I do believe he would do a good job but I want I want everyone to realize something and I did some digging into history in special elections in Miami day County since 2018 there have been eight special elections for open Council seats since 2018 in Miami day County um six of them were required by Charter I went back and looked at the charter of those towns and six of them were required the council did not have a choice otherwise there's been two special elections where the council had a choice do we want a special election do we want to appoint City of Miami in 2023 let's not get into City of Miami politics in the town of Miami Lakes in 2024 that's it so having an appointment is not is the norm a council voluntarily entering into a special election is not the norm and I think one thing that is crucial for the town and for this body we're really literally on our first day for for half of us right um if we vote no we're throwing ourselves into Politics on day one we've seen how a political Council works it's not that effective and I think the last thing that we need is to throw ourselves into a special election it would be six election days in Miami Lakes in less than a year about a year's time uh and I I honestly don't know if the town residents want another election they voted for you they knew or should assume should we assume they knew that whoever won that race right whether if yourself you wanton or or vice mayor Fernandez they had the the power to appoint and based off the approval of the council this is the power the charter grants you we can have a discussion about changing the charter in the future uh I think there we can look at other towns Charters and see when we should require a special election when we shouldn't especially in sub this type of situation where someone has has to resign the run but ultimately uh that's a discussion for November we have a fully qualified applicant who's committed I believe he will do a good job so um I'll be voting for Mr Sanchez because it's what makes sense for this town and um you know it's a good choice Mr Mayor uh councilman Fernandez and then councilman Quadra thank you um this is you know we were we were elected and in my case uh I didn't have an opponent but I'm here to make a decision um it's no secret that I was a a big supporter of the previous candidate miam Miana she served on on the Planning and Zoning Board she chaired it before me and she did an amazing job I thought she was very very competent but that's you know you you and I disagreed with there there um that's not something that we are going to make a decision on today um I've heard from many constituents I had one one one resid didn't call me and asked me to call everyone cuz there were two candidates that received from the same resident more than one letter of support so I was asked to call each of those residents that actually gave two letters of support one for Mr Sanchez and one for Mr Hassan and the the majority stated that they would confirm Alex and these are these are trusted members of of of the Town people that I that I really look up to um so I I'm going to support the I'm going to confirm the appointment counc Quadra Garcia thank you um Council I want to start by uh saying uh what the colonel but Colonel William Perez said he doesn't Envy any of us today here but I'm going to give it all clear here to this to this body okay I'm going to give you what my heart has to say I happen to uh talk to Mr Sanchez uh fine young man I've read his uh his application so did I read the the rest of the other eight they're all qualified actually you happen to be uh in the na in the same branch that my dad served for 23 years so uh I uh I give you uh my my salute to you but I got to do something that is what the people have asked me and I W I'm going to tell the people you guys very clearly I went out and I knocked on doors and who put me on this chair was the people so my my words that you're going to hear from me today they might not be your big words but they're going to be from my heart we've been talking about you know money etc etc and by the way Mr uh Mr Sanchez I I I I think I wish you the best but I have to I have to come here and do what the people want me to do I got a call the other day and a lady said to me aren't you the gentleman with that real famous phrase give me 3% of your trust and I will earn the other night 97 I said yes so make sure that that day you do the right thing so the right thing to make a long story short what I'm going to say somebody said about institutional knowledge you know we're talking about money I made a little bit rough I made a little bit of a a mathematical equation here if we go to a special election the first one and we have to do a runoff the first one will cost us about a dollar in change in the whole year this if it goes to a rof it's going to be about 60 something, it's going to cost about $2 in change to all of us but let's move forward we have an individual in this chamber that has more institutional knowledge than a lot of us she was a a former Council woman that's what I'd like to support okay for her to run out that term that way we don't have to spend we don't have to spend the money that we're talking about so let's consider having her run out that term if that can't be done I don't know if it could be done or not Mr uh Mr uh Mr attorney then from there my my choice is going to be for us to go to a special election thank you thank you councilman Quadra Garcia councilman Garcia to the chair thank you mayor mayor thank you so much um for the explanation and for putting together that process that you did and the explanation you gave to everybody um I think what makes Miami Lake special is the amount of volunteers and people that have stepped up throughout the years to not only serve in committees but actually run for office and there's a lot of you who have served us here as council members and also those who have run Vice Mayors I mean it's it's just it's so amazing how much the love for the town inspires inspires us uh to run um the new council person is going to have to deal with two budget Cycles a charter review the 2035 plan dealing with the new sheriff and how that's going to affect us our police force um the numerous projects when it comes to storm water that we still have to finish Park projects I mean tens and tens of millions of dollars of of um of your taxpayer money that we have to make decisions on I've met with with Alex and uh I want to thank you for for participating um we' spoken in length and I told them exactly how I feel the right to vote to me is the most important the right for the residents to actually decide on the vote we need to do a better job of participation and yes special elections don't have the turnout that a regular election does but it does not take away the importance of giving the right to vote to the residents to me it's it's that simple as for the costs I understand it is a cost but I think the process of letting the residents aside is worth that cost I'm not I'm not worried about what happened in the past I'm worried about what's best right now what I believe is best right now I'd like my colleagues to to consider that before you make your vote is are we giving residents the chance and as uh as Council Garcia said there are other council members that still have an opportunity to run um or people have run in the past or like we always have new faces that always step up when they're called on to run and knock on doors and to earn the trust of the residents to me it's that simple he is sir you are extremely qualified no doubt you're a wonderful Miami Laker no doubt the first thing I told you when we met is this is how I feel so there was no you knew how I felt from the beginning and I never and and and we still talk for about an hour after that um so I will be voting no not because of this individual's talent and what he brings to the table but because I want the residents again to have the the right to choose their next council person because of all of the issues for the next two years that are going to set the tone for the next 20 years in Miami Lakes and that's the only reason why I would vote no on this and I would uh um support a special election at this time thank you mayor mayor Mr vice mayor I don't really think I need to go too much into Alex enough's been said the guy is more than qualified as were many of the applicants I want to talk about reality a little bit um number one uh through the mayor to council member Quadra Garcia the charter is pretty clear the nomination has already been made um and it cannot be withdrawn because the 30 days have passed we cannot now turn around and nominate somebody else uh the nomination has been made and the question on the table is yes or no to the nomination that's been made end of story um and we are all free to votee however we want on a final Point costs um I I've heard the numbers get thrown around we were provided with the actual numbers today uh of my election uh back in April and by the way I I do say this as someone who went through a special election um and while uh while yes it may seem like the easy road to many who throw their hat into that race it comes with its own set of challenges because while the regular campaign season is quite long this one is a Sprint without taking a chance to stop and breathe it is it consumes you because you cannot stop because you don't have time to stop you don't have time to eat uh I was eating while knocking on doors sometimes I got invited into houses for cafesito and cetas and that was great but it is a tough process as well and um you know not not to say that I'm any less deserved of the seat but one of the problems with these Special elections is the rate of participation one of the biggest challenges that I faced was getting people out to the polls and one of the reasons for that is because this Town Council in January of last year voted to provide exactly zero days of early voting which is one of the mechanisms by which we most improve public participation so when we talk about these numbers 37,000 36,000 or the total of 74,000 which combines the original election day with the runoff election date we're leaving out that are we just going to say we're going to have one election day or are we going to properly uh give the voice to the people has been as has been suggested and improve public participation by including early voting days and footing the bill for it because if you do that then it's not going to be 37,000 for the first one and 36,000 for the second one for a total of 74,000 no no no we are talking about 150,000 and up and I'm sorry I'd rather repair some sidewalks I'd rather get down to business to the business of governing rather than the politics of selecting who gets to sit up here I yield my time through the chair councilman Garcia uh the vice mayor brings up a good point um is there any way I can put a motion to add 3 days of early voting to the process if we vote Yes on the special election no because it's not your remain to the existing motion which is solely on the on whether or not to vote for that'll be after the fact yes we have to dispose of that motion before we can even get there thank you may although I'm glad to see that You' become a believer in early voting as well now um but with that said a um I just want to acknowledge two former colleagues of mine that I just saw in the audience the first is our vice mayor and my former opponent um you know who has been very gracious Mr Tony Fernandez please please stand and be recognized I also want to acknowledge a very good friend of mine uh who I did not see uh Orlando's kind of a big person so I didn't see see you in behind uh there but uh that would be councilwoman Rano please stand and as I close uh um and we get ready to vote uh the one thing I just want to say though is uh and this specifically to those of you who don't know the the relationship that Marilyn and I have right Marilyn and Marilyn and I have been uh good friends since I got here um it took a little while for us to get to know each other better and whatnot but we quickly became fast friends especially because being in the trenches will do that to you right um and the and more importantly I'm I still consult her on a regular basis right I still go to her what do you think about this what do you think about that I do the same thing with uh Vice former vice mayor uh lisis goaso um you know I like to seek out their input on things and and Marilyn and I did talk about the appointment right um and at the time it was not something that we seemed or we agreed was uh appropriate for what she needed right now in life right um of course the future is always open to her um and ultimately I was very clear that I would select from whoever had applied uh you know uh in this process that we had that we had just gone through and and of course she chose not to apply right now but she's still very much involved um as far as I still consult her as often as possible I know for a fact that many of you are also calling her as as often as possible it's it's almost like you never left right um but as the vice mayor pointed out once the nomination has been made and the 30 days has passed there's no turning back and I wish councilman Quadra Garcia that you would still uh you know agree to what what we had stated I mean of course you're free to change your mind but we did discuss that it was either going to be Mr Hassan or Mr sandz so um of course it's it's your vote and like you said the voters elected you as they elected me and everyone else up here and so you do with it what you will but you know I just wanted to make that very clear that we had that we had discussed this and there was no objection raised at the time um with that said Madame clerk please call the role on this question so the motion to approve the nomination of Mr Alejandro Sanchez council member hburg yes council member Garcia no council member Quadra Garcia no council member Fernandez yes vice mayor morera yes mayor Diez yes the motion passes thank you Madame Clerk and thank you all um at this time I'd like to uh take a f minute recess Mr Sanchez has to uh uh work with the clerk to get formally brought on board um and he will begin uh joining us as quickly as possible are do any of my colleagues though prior to us going on this uh brief recess have anything that they want to add as a mo moment of personal privilege yes I have a moment of personal privilege that I'd like to request very brief briefly on the council member report regarding um Miami Lakes goes uh to Harvard uh I think that this is actually an ideal moment to bring it up and I know he's in the room um so with that being said I'm not sure uh if you guys are aware but there's somebody there's a superstar in the room with us and that's uh mait aosta uh he's been involved in our town for many years uh has been involved with the YF as well as uh many things around the town and uh he recently the news that he was accepted to Harvard University and I think that he deserves our recognition congratulations and wait Claudia lucus over there before you leave yeah can you come over here um I believe you were saying that there are others in the room that are that are also going to Ivy League or I just want to clarify that one she she's yeah oh okay well if you want I I'll shoot you a text later and and uh and figure out more in more detail what you want I thought you that there were others that also were going to uh an Ivy League that you wanted to recogniz okay no worries with that let's take a five minute recess so everyone can congratulate Mr Sanchez for joining the council and and also he can uh uh do what he needs to do with the clerk thank you five minutes that would be at 7:57 sharp let's go e e e e e e e e e e e okay everyone we are going to swear in our new council member if if you can take your conversations outside of the chambers we can get started right away thank you and we'll have an opportunity for some photos uh shortly after the informal saring in there will be a formal saring in at a later dat so we're going to start with the swearing in of Mr Alejandro Sanchez so just repeat after me I and state your name I Alejandro Sanchez a citizen of the State of Florida a citizen of the State of Florida and of the United States of America and of the United States of America and duly nominated and confirmed and duly nominated and confirmed council member of the town of Miami Lakes council member of the town of Miami Lakes do hereby solemnly swear or affirm do hereby solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and of the State of Florida and of the State of Florida and the charter of the town of Miami Lakes and the charter of the town of Miami Lakes and now we're going to proceed with your signature congratulations council member Sanchez let okay we're going to take some quick photos as a as a new Council uh and then we will continue with uh tonight's proceeding so we can get out of here at a decent time so look council member Sanchez please take your seat on the Das all right so welcome back everybody and congratulations to pardon me one second you know and I just want to welcome our new council member Mr Al Alex Sanchez um who is joining us welcome again we will have a a more formal swearing in for him at a later time uh but we just needed to operate at a full Council again which is uh in line with what the charter wants us to do with that we're going to introduce a few uh oh perfect um a few new members of Staff uh first I I want to introduce my own assistant um his name is also Josh um so but he's Josh vorin he comes to us by way of green greenspoon modder correct and uh prior to that also however was involved in a variety of other uh government offices including Congressman Diaz bolar uh he was an intern at one point for former city manager Jimmy Morales who is now our currently uh County uh operations manager uh so he he comes to us with a lot of experience and and a very promising future somebody who again will become uh my new right hand at at Town Hall and so I hope you'll please uh join me in welcoming him to the town of Miami leagues okay so we're on number we're on item seven now appointments I will now read out the names of those who were previously appointed they've these are people who have fulfilled all conditions to serve on our advisory boards I will begin with Miguel Martinez to the blasting Advisory Board appointed by council member Garcia Marley Hernandez appointed to the mental health task force by council member Quadra Garcia Mr omo Cruz to the planning zoning board by council member Ray Garcia congratulations to those individuals if they're in the room now it um we do have some individuals here that some of the council members would like to appoint but they require a a waiver a I will begin actually from the bottom up um because I'm I'm a bit more clear on why the waiver is required but Mr Edwin Julian or is being appointed to the blasting Advisory board by council member Fernandez and I just wanted the clerk to please State for the record what the uh issues were there and then of course if there's a motion to go ahead and make a motion to wave and and a second uh so M Madam clerk yes it was explained to us that Mr Edwin Julian Julian or will be attending first of all the bab meeting on January 27th though so if he gets approved it's with that condition that he needs to comply and go to the meeting but as well that he does not meet the qualifications a b and c of section 12 reading it into the record he is not a resident of the town he's not employed by the town and he does not own a business or property located in the town so we're just asking the waiver for the council if they do desire to wave the the section 11 of the committee rules so just to be clear the the motion to wave will wave the requirement about residency or employment within the town right or being a business or property owner within the town correct however he would in order to actually join the board he would still need to attend one more one more re uh meeting correct okay just want to make sure I understand that council member Fernandez this is your nominee so why don't you go ahead and and make the motion thank you mayor uh the fact is that he lives just north north of the town so he he's a resident of pb's north um certainly affected by the blasting there's no question about that I think he's going to serve uh the committee well he has great experience so I'm looking forward to his confirmation so that's your motion um to yeah to for us to confirm the appointment okay and wave the rule correct and wave the rule okay is there a second I'll second is there any discussion Mr marus briefly councilman hburg um counc fernz just a little bit because the board is small I actually will be appointing someone that also lives in PSN so that makes a lot of sense uh am I'm fine with waving that rule I'm not fine at all ever waving the rule of attending the meeting um but a little bit more about how he wants to be involved or or me because I I want to say that the the blasting board does have an exception for people that have a specific skill or interest expertise so even that board specifically you you necessarily don't necessarily have to wave these rules for the board but if you just give us a little bit of background as long as it's not waving the attendance requirement I'm okay no I'm not requesting that um in regards to his experience may may I uh mayor absolutely you're recognized thank you uh in regards to his experience um he if I if I recall correctly I'd have to go back to my emails I I did speak to him and and we communicated by email as well um he is an engineer uh some capacity so yeah so he all right you're good thank you all right that's all I needed to hear you got it so the nomination of Mr Edwin Julian or has been made by council member Fernandez it has been seconded by um council member Garcia along with a waiver of the rules pertaining to committee members uh all those in favor please say I I I oppose no seeing none the motion carries now we're moving on to Mr JN Carlo Rodriguez is being appointed to the Public Safety Committee by council member Ray Garcia who also requires uh a waiver uh Madame clerk can you please explain what the waivers are as to that nominee yes Mr Jin Carlo Rodriguez very active he has been participating a as a volunteer not as a Committee Member in another Committee in the last year and um council member Garcia told us that he would like to appoint him to the public safety he does not meet the section 11 of the committee rules requirement he's not a resident he's not employed in the town and he does not own a business he did State for the record to um Mr Martinez Alexis and I that his intention is to be moving into the town soon and I believe he shared that as well with council member Garcia and I shared it with council member Garcia thank you for the explan thank you for the explanation council member Garcia this is your uh nominee so please please uh go ahead and make any motions and and offer any support for your motion uh that you can thank you mayor yeah I want to thank you Mr Rodriguez for being here and for obviously um you know participating in and volunteering in the town um I know you're trying to move into the town and you're waiting on some accommodations uh to be able to move into that apartment um so I appreciate you so yes uh John Carlos has been a volunteer here in the town uh for for the last couple years and uh Public Safety is something that he he feels strongly about and um although he doesn't live in the town now he's actively seeking a residence in to to live in the town and just waiting on some accommodations to do to do that so I would ask for the waiver of the rules to allow him to again um uh move in uh become part of the U committee Public Safety Committee at this time second it's been moved and seconded is there any discussion is my understanding that Mr Rodriguez is here he's right there all you want to raise your hand sir hi how you doing a how quickly do you believe that you'll be moving into the town if I may ask there you go okay excellent okay for for the residents uh watching live or watching in the future uh he said he will be moving in next week so this is not a huge waiver um in terms of The Residency requirement and again previously with the blasting Advisory Board it is a board that affects multiple communities and some Public Safety no no no I'm just pointing out uh you know uh the waivers here right I don't want to I want us to get into the habit of waving rules um because it kind of defeats the purpose ofm right uh so I'm just explaining you know again that in the blasting Advisory Board case some of our strongest volunteers for that cause have actually come from PSN Mr Miguel Martinez being one of them right here um and uh and I think that makes sense and then in the case of Mr Rodriguez he's moving in next week so this is a a sensible waiver and I'll be supported uh with all with that all those in favor say I I allos no the eyes have it the motion carries congratulations Mr Rodriguez and Mr uh Edwin Julian or are you here oh there we go congratulations to both of you now one final matter on the appointments uh individuals to be appointed contingent on complying with committee rules um Madam clerk please explain the deficiencies with these uh with these particular nominees yes and I'm going to go in the order of the sheet that we prepared Mr Danielle montelo is going to be appointed to the blasting Advisory board by council member hburg and he will be attending the next bab meeting taking place January 27th if he complies he complies with the committee rules the next appointment is from do you want me to just go briefly one by one they're very simple it is my understanding that we won't be voting on these this is just noting that they can't officially take a seat boards until um they they fulfill these requirements but the other ones needed a vote because they require a waiver corre I cannot um deliver the the swearing in that I do with the committee members unless they comply with all the committee rules so Kimberly Miss Kimberly trees special needs Advisory board by council member Ray Garcia she we're waiting for her background check once it is completed then she will be able to be sworn in and Mr Raphael J Shu who also wants to be appointed to the economic development committee by council member Angelo cuadra Garcia he needs to attend the January 28th meeting they do that everything will be fine and the clerk will swear them in excellent so you've read the names into the record and I just want to uh tentatively congratulate those uh volunteers for joining again we don't need to vote on them um and I saw Mr shook here earlier is he still present he was here he left okay well congratulations to all of you uh Mr vice mayor you have a moment of personal privilege you'd like to take uh point of clarification uh Madame clerk make sure you uh double check uh Kimberly tra's name spelling I believe her first and last name are misspelled yes I will we will check that and a mayor dieas I just wanted to stay for the record because it was brought to my attention and transparency in government is priority for us I did swear in Mr Miguel Martinez I want to say a week ago to the blasting Advisory board by and he was appointed by council member Ray Garcia of course he we all know that he was a previous chair for many years and he has a specific skill in blasting Advisory Board as I believe council member hburg mentioned but I just wanted to state that for the record he's not a resident so if we do need a w this is a moment to do so it was just called to my attention so I want a full disclosure thank you madam clerk we're now on item 8B uh that would be the mental health task force report which was moved up earlier is Lindsay here okay the colonel will take it excellent the floor is yours sir unfortunately the chair will had to step out to deal with some family issues I think you're already were aware of that um really it's a what we want to put on is what we call responding with compassion Workshop it's actually being done with Miami day Sheriff's Office and it's basically dealing with the uh kind of educating the public about the new unit that the Miami dat sheriff's office has that helps respond to those having a mental health crisis um it's part could be part part of the Baker Act may not be part of the Baker Act um but it's a a group of uh men and women who are specifically trained to deal with somebody who's going through a mental health crisis either the family member contacts them or they're found doing something that causes the uh local population be alert and contact police officers um this Workshop would be held about May 15th he'll be here in Chambers uh we will set up basically a lecture type situation with as well as uh uh kind of providers as well outside um and we will also be providing some small snacks and coffee for the lecture um it's going to be open to basically a lot of mental health providers in the local town and basically we just need your approval to do that so I would ask that you would approve that to a motion to approve uh the May 15th responding with compassion Workshop bill just uh through the mayor if I may uh just to clarify something uh or make the public aware there is no funding request here you're funding this through sponsorships yes correct I I'll I'll move to approve the item I'll second second the the motion has been or rather the item has been moved and seconded Al any discussion saying none all those in favor say I I I'll oppose no the eyes hav't the motion carries thank you very much Mr Mayor thank you very much council member um the other item is you received the town received a grants from the federal government on opiate reduction um your mental health task force fall fall festival not everyone got to attend it a lot of the folks the previous councilmen did we had several uh professionals and agencies that were there sponsors who specifically deal with drug addiction and specifically deal with opiate reduction uh what I'm asking is that you the town consider to allocate some of that fund to the Fall Festival that we're going to have it's now become a permanent item it's in October I can't recall what month we agreed on this year I mean what day we agreed on this year um they allocate some of that funding to help support that so we can make it even bigger and better than it was last year uh I leave it up to the town manager decide how much funding would be available for that if if any that they can put to that budget item we have a line item for it in our proposed budget for the uh mental health task force fall festival and I thank you very much for your time Mr Mayor Mr vice mayor I'd like to move to direct the town manager to inquire with staff on how much of that fund is still available um and how much caner should be uh appropriated for this fund I'll second the ad it's been moved in seconded any discussion seeing none all those in favor say I oppose no you eyes have it the motion carries thank you very much gentlemen thank you very much and uh if my colleagues will indulge me if we can move just slightly out of order the town manager has has asked that we simply do the staff introductions for the new hires really quickly and then we can continue with the adren if there's no objection um you know I'd like to proceed in that way seeing none Mr manager go ahead yeah this is something that we just try and introduce new staff members normally we have one maybe two Max we have seven this time it's been several time months since we've had a meeting so all I'm going to do is I'm going to call out give you a brief description of the person and have them stand up so you can make the connection of putting the face with the name the first uh new staff member is thealis Navaro she's our marketing and Digital Services specialist in community Communications and Community Affairs she replaced uh Jonathan we next we have Noah moff I hope I pronounce that correct he's also in community uh uh Affairs Department he replaced uh Jacob and that's a a part-time position next we have Isabella kraton she's the town committee liais on she replaced Gabby who went to finance replacing somebody who went to be my assistant who replaced somebody who went to procurement so yeah and and that that that proves that we try and hire from within as much as possible but ultimately at the end of the day there's one final Domino that falls we have Alexis Martinez that all of you have become well aware of uh and know him very well she he replaced Victoria we have Aaron Borno who's our Arbor coordinator in Parks and Recreation he replaced Andres Pinero who went to become our parks and athletic manager so another Domino uh hire there we have uh Taylor Fowler our programs coordinator in Parks and Recreation she replaced Kiara Rodriguez who went off to be a mom we also have finally Justin deera deera our transportation coordinator he's working in planning together uh with Susana he's replacing Olivia who went to replace Renee so those are our new staff members thank you very much mayor congratulations and welcome to the town of Miami Lakes with that we are now back on the order of business as amended twice which was item 8A the blasting Advisory board report you are recognized good evening my name is Franchesca Ortega I'm the vice chair for the blasting Advisory Board it's a privilege sorry it's a privilege to stand before you guys today and be able to issue this report we've accomplished so much in 2020 for um one of the great things about our committee is that we are a group of diverse individuals and each one of us possess a very special role so we're each in charge of different areas I look forward to these new members that are being appointed today meeting them in the next meeting we began the year last year with a huge accomplishment in Milestone which was attending the inaugural uh Tallahassee Workshop that was uh coordinated thanks to representative Fabricio it was a critical step in bringing us towards in front of the state legislature and um addressing the issue at a state level with had which had never been accomplished before um locally we've worked tirelessly to build Partnerships and expand awareness throughout the community especially in the affected neighborhoods through Outreach with local municipalities like the City of Homestead Miramar as well as after all we've built alliances with these organizations um to help further the message and uh create a united front just last week we met with um city of Maramar and we assisted them in a presentation that they have in front of uh their council members they hadn't met them in about a year to go over their progress and re-evaluate their strategy and we were able to assist them as a resource in the end that eventually we would unite forces and work together um obviously we also conduct a lot of community outreach outside of the bab because every member of the bab lives in a community that's highly affected by blasting um I want to also bring up Miguel who's going to provide an update he's the past chair of the board and he's going to go over some of our future plans that we have and our future goals but before I get to that I wanted to kind of like go over the Strategic Community engagement that we've done because we've partnered with other entities to create social media campaigns work with the PSN civic association as well as our local HOAs to increase awareness um I wish we could have presented while more residents were here to encourage them to also come forward and speak to us and get involved because these videos illustrating damages to people's properties have created a big impact and awareness in our community thank you Mel Martinez um first I I want to congratulations on the election um we're in we're in a peculiar uh situation or location I guess if you will uh as a bab as most of you members were were past members of of our of our board so you're well aware of what what we're dealing with and what's going on however as you are aware one of the biggest things is show KN in the community that we're actually advancing there is progress um and the the doubts are constant and we we feel it we hear it we get it all the time so one of the things that that we're focusing on um a focus that we've had that we're looking at this this year is just that continuing the Outreach and Partnerships so councilman hburg I want to thank you because I know you've been reaching out to other municipalities but I will share with you guys that today I was reached out by Miami day County and Miami day county is looking at establishing ordinances proper for for the blasting reg regulations um I will continue to contact and be in communication with them to see what other assistance I'm going provide them um we're look the last year or this past year recommendations were given to the council by by this committee um and we we encourage you to to continue to move forward with these these uh recommendations and again working with us any questions that may arise that we're here to to answer them um we want to continue with the Strategic Community engagement going with the other communities and and partnering with the other other uh affected areas it's essential that we continue doing so thank you Mr Mr Mayor can I have Mr attorney you recognized yeah um I dealt with this committee uh the other day for almost two hours and I can tell you the the technical knowledge the hard work the time the devotion that they put into this is unmatched by any Committee in the town and it's probably the one that gets the least amount of let's call it Pub all right but the knowledge that they possess the assets that they bring to me uh for the pending issues that we may be discussing later uh is invaluable and they really should be applauded for everything they do because it is above and beyond and they really BR bring a lot to the table and for that I I got to thank you thank you thank you for the recognition and now that you've applauded us we have two requests that was not planned at all I promise go go ahead you're recognized the the first request is that you guys revert to the old attendance rule ruling because we are a small group now we have additional members that we welcome with open arms we've had issues meeting Quorum because you know some members don't show up and then our time is lost and we have to wait a whole month before we can reconvening continue business so obviously going back to the attendance rule of three or more unexcused absences gets you off a board would be super beneficial for us and I'm sure maybe some other committees may agree with that and the second ask is that we have a budget of $7,500 that's reserved for travel that we will utilize coming soon to tassi trips but we request that a small portion of that be allowed to uh be applied to a workshop because um we've been working with council member um hburg on calling out to a lot of communities municipalities to get together and discuss you know our united front going forward and we can't really do that if we can't utilize a small portion of the funds to allocate it for certain things so okay well we have an item already on the committee roles as as you may or may not know what uh councilman herberg is proposing it so we will be hearing that a little later tonight okay um so we will take that up at that point okay and as far as your budget request a how soon are you looking to do the town hall because remember that we have our carry forward amendment process coming up soon as well as our budget uh process later this year so is this something that is urgent or but but it's money from within your current budget right just to move money from one line to another so do it through your liaison there's a process it's really easy next month we'll just address it and and and approve it oh okay perfect yeah that we do that all the time tonight there's one on the agenda for the cultural Affairs committee when they transfer not extra money is moving money from one item to another within your own budget yes yes thank you so much have a great night thank you for your service okay yeah so so you're good there thank you thank you all welcome back Miguel yes Miguel he just wanted you to know welcome back welcome back we missed you okay we're out of committee reports and we are now on item 14f that is the vice mayor's item vice mayor Mora you are recognized thank you Mr Mayor all right we had a couple people come and speak on this item and uh I do want to apologize to uh miss trees I I do know that uh I think you had told me you had childcare until 8 but shows your your passion for this issue the fact that you're still here beyond that time um so this item is about the fact that as as of right now um retail use is prohibited in office zones that is a reasonable uh restriction and it's reasonable because the demands that retail places on Office Buildings is quite severe especially when it comes to parking um however after the pandemic we saw the birth of a new kind of industry uh an industry where it's a primary online or primarily online brand with a very limited physical footprint a footprint which is primarily designed to showcase the goods show you hey this is what I got oh you want to place an order cool go online um as opposed to your traditional brick and mortar um not withstanding when those kind of businesses try to open in Miami Lakes they're classified as retail um therefore they're not permitted to open in the RO 13 and ro50 Zone districts which is the primary office zones in the town of Miami Lakes uh additionally if anyone here has ever rented commercial property you know that the price per square foot of retail Zone locations is incredibly high and it is a cost burden that most of these uh small businesses which they are small businesses for the most part by their very nature uh cannot shoulder so you end up with a a catch they end up in a catch 22 um they rather than than supporting right as of this moment these kinds of businesses are being shut down in the town um rather than than supporting and promoting this segment of the business Community uh the town's currently shutting these businesses down they're priced out of the zoning districts that allow retail and they're shut down in the office zones uh they're essentially being told you're not welcome here and I think everyone on this dis Prides themselves on saying that we are a business-friendly town well let's put our money where our mouth is uh because to remedy the situation uh I'm proposing uh that the town code should be amended to create a new type of use called limited retail if someone has a more creative name let me know uh and make it a permitted use in the r13 and the ro50 zoning districts I I attached a proposed ordinance I am willing to discuss potential changes to it uh any any uh additions that you want to make to it modifications Etc uh and I will get into the specifics in a moment um but this ordinance would uh set forth A system that allows these business to FL these businesses to flourish while ensuring that the traditional retail uses that the burden or or the um the the yeah the the overburdening of uh the existing infrastructure by typical or traditional retail uses don't come to play here and rather we can have office build buildings with these limited retail uses uh and before I do jump into uh the the ordinance itself in order to prevent further shutdowns of family-owned businesses uh family-owned small businesses in our town while this matter is is pending and being considered by the Town Council I would like to encourage my colleagues to support the establishment of a 180-day moratorium on the enforcement of the prohibition of retail uses uh in r13 and ro50 Zoning districts um I'd actually like to make that last part a motion at this stage and see if uh what the what the my colleagues so you want to begin with the moratorium first yeah or if if unless the uh further discussion is needed on on that part but I think that it makes sense to start there real quick get that out of the way and then move back to the to the bigger item I'll second that motion uh first uh is there any discussion councilman Garcia pardon me thank you motion that he's making is just right now solely not on creating the district but solely on the issue of of uh temporarily pausing enforcement so that I presume we can have a bigger conversation about this um so with that I'll second the motion um Madam Clerk and then uh counc mber Garcia you are recognized to uh to discuss thank you so much mayor um questions to the staff do we know how many businesses fall under this would fall under this new designation if this designation was created at this time well right now there's yeah we don't know we'd have to go and and find out so but there's probably only a few because you know retail in this uh Zone there probably shouldn't be so there was one recently that uh they were denied their uh their BTR and that's how that was uh brought to light so there probably should there should not be too many right now that's so I guess this question to rephrase it a different way is how many businesses right now would benefit from this moratorium maybe that's a better way to put it thank you that's that's a good is the same answer okay I mean it just it's it's well I'm just trying to get what I'm trying to determine is do we actually need the moratorium or is it something that as businesses as this comes to light we can uh educ educate them while we work on this I I just is there so many happening that we need a moratorium at this time uh or is it better for the staff to say um man we're working on this and we're educating them legal to say listen I I I I've spoken with the vice mayor I think it's it's a good thing for us to look into but this could have a lot of effects on a lot of businesses uh when you are talking about zoning and you're talking about affecting a zone or allowing a Zone and you affect another business that business May then have uh claims subsequent claims so we I I think it's great for us to look at you know with Susie and with Danny and see you know how it affects and and then we can come back with you maybe the suggestion is a moratorium but I think we need to understand first the effect of it before you pass it that's just just a suggestion okay but right now we're just solely on the issue the moratorium even the moratorium Mr Mayor I'm not sure what that would and I understand where they're coming from Mr Mayor so if I if if I may I'd like to withdraw the motion for the moratorium and instead uh act instead I'd like to move for uh uh a what did I say before before 18 180 day extension be granted to all active um applicants for um btrs uh btrs thank you in that situation do the attorneys have any objection on on that I'm sorry I didn't fully hear the motion I apologize in instead of a broad moratorium that applies to people who haven't because I get where you're coming from it could cause a flood of people coming in uh um you know even for full retail kind of the way I had phrased it before so I actually understand where you were coming from this is instead specific the existing ones that have uh either been denied or given violations or whatnot just those existing ones just be granted a 180 extensions that way we're not causing new problems on BTR applications just want the consult so what what we can do is we can put a and we're not going to shut them down nothing's going to happen we can just put a pause on the any type of enforcement for the for the moment for the btrs for for not having a current BTR for the current btrs that is what I move is there a second I'll second that is there any discussion mayor or vice mayor um I'd also like if if you come up with because I think the the next step is going to be for you you're going to work with staff to look at the ordinance and look at potential changes and and come to Kumbaya moment with uh our planner who's uh you know I'm always in Kumbaya with our planner but but then the also if you can put in this provision is that once a new ordinance is passed revising this that then the moratorium would be lifted on the pausing of btrs that's exactly what I move okay so it's been moved seconded is there any uh discussion on this item well the extension yeah so any discussion going once going twice okay U all those in favor say I I I I'll oppose no all right the eyes have it motion carries as to the the merits of the The Proposal itself uh I did take the liberty of drafting out something just because I always like to overdo things and show up overly prepared uh but this is still very fungible uh this is uh for you guys to give me your comment uh I'm going to start off at the bottom of page 256 of the agenda uh which is in the somewhere in the middle of the of the proposed ordinance this is where I I create this use of limited retail uh and it's frankly the most important part because it establishes the the classification um and this is where I really need you know the back and forth with you guys as well as with uh Susanna and and staff on what we need to do here to make sure we don't overburden the office uh the office districts with retail uses um so uh I Define limited retail as a category of commercial use that permits the retail sale of goods to customers under the following conditions one at least 50% of the establishment's revenue must be derived from online sales to no more than one person per 10 square feet of showroom space shall be allowed to enter and or remain within the establishment at any one time including employees three The Establishment must provide adequate parking facilities to meet the needs of all customers and employees without causing congestion or negatively impacting surrounding properties four activities must not generate undue noise or cause strong or unpleasant or odors and five food preparation for sale or public con consumption is not permitted uh if the applicant happens to be a tenant they must submit a signed a knowledgement form indicating that the landlord is aware of and consents to the intended use alternatively a signed copy of the lease agreement explicitly stating the intended use is acceptable I did forget to mention earlier I'm going to move my my motion tonight on this is to have uh is to get the council's blessing to have me um go and work with staff on turning this into a final version that we can bring as an ordinance in first reading um that's the that's the motion is there a second I'll second for discussion okay councilman Garcia you're recognizing in discussion uh thank you mayor uh and Mr Vice May thank you for um looking for alternatives to increase uh business here in the town being Nimble is something that we need to do to help small businesses so I encourage anything that allows us to do that um you brought up some of the items that I was going to ask you about and I was going to ask staff about you know current parking situation um you know limited customer how many people are allowed in in in the building um also is there and I would ask Susanna uh are there uses like this uh currently successful uses that you've seen being used in other towns and other cities that are trying to be more flexible with their commercial space and retail space that that uh you know Synergy or I guess you know being flexible with that and mirroring them or mixing them both together in that sense I haven't done full research so this is just basically um right off the top of my head I don't have any municipality that actually has this particular definition I saw that you wrote an ordinance that obviously you got out of somewhere so I'm curious to see what oh that's scary he's thinking I was hoping you copied and paste it um but okay uh so obviously we would have to do and see if it because this is more a question of comp comp plan right that my concern is going to be does this uh function within the current comp plan or do we have to do a comp plan Amendment as well um because there's uh a lot of um unintended consequences how we say that have to do with fees that are required um uh you know not only just parking but there's a lot of other little things like one of the things that we use the RO districts for are as a buffer between heavier or more dense commercial districts and residential um most of our our district if you see where they're situated they're sort of uh sort of like creating a barrier to sort of transition from a heavier uh commercial District usually a bu2 or a bu1 into something uh mostly single family residential so those are the kinds of considerations that I would look into uh because it may well it may be appropriate in some areas and and also my question is why not just reone completely so you know what is the upside of just just not resoning versus creating an overlay which is what we're discussing right so I I would like to see all those sure iterations and see which one makes more sense again considering the geography of each individual rro and not just blanket does that make sense yeah no absolutely what thank you for that so um we look forward for your for your report uh Mr vice mayor what I would like to see is uh if we can bring in the economic development uh uh board and also Chamber of Commerce just to see what business opportunities there are when it comes to this hybrid model um is it something they feel or I'm sure they they' they've come across perhaps there are also members that say wow yeah if this existed I would definitely open up my business there um what I don't what I would not like to see is one type of business suffer because another is is a hybrid and and they're getting you know paying less you know less I guess the rent comes down but so the 50% retail uh you flexible with the 50% retail because I think 50% is a lot when it I mean by appointment I understand maybe uh you know it's because most of their business going to be online you said and they're going to ship it to the customer yeah it's it's not going to be coming in and buying it from that location and yeah I'm I'm flexible on that number and and yeah you're correct yeah if if the business Community comes in and and you know this this might be a hybrid model that uh that really works well and and and brings in a lot of business and uh so I'm open to anything that that does that but if you're flexible with that because I would 50% I think is a little too much because it's you're you know you're basically it's going to be hard to do 50% to the business and only have one or two people come in unless they do it by appointment but that means their unit cost is high right that means you know eight appointments 12 appointments a day that that unit cost per sale cost per sale has to be high in order for them to meet their their um you know their profit margins and to meet their margins so um and that's another discussion we have to have when it comes to that so absolutely I I'll be you know I'm for exploring it and and yeah and to be clear that's exactly what the motion seeks is to sit with uh the town planner iron out those issues and come back to you but I did want to gauge the the support of the of the Das before I went through all that effort council member hburg you recognized in discussion thank you mayor yeah I I share the same sentiment of councilman Garcia is the 50% that's High the 50 no more the limitation right so is it at at least 50% has to be retail meaning the other 50% could online excuse me that mean the other 50% could be in person uh so I think that number is a little too high uh potentially and the other issue is how do we are we in ordinance are we going to request financials to confirm how the 50% is getting there my apologies uh you're you're recognized Mr vice mayor number one I want to clarify between the two of you um when you're saying that the 50% is too high are you saying that that the percent of online sales should be greater meaning 70 like 60% should be online so that only 40% is in person is that what you're saying that that's that's what I see yeah okay and then uh cool and then uh the other part uh what was what was the other part just so you get my thought process enforcement of of the 50 60 whatever number we agree on how do you enforce that that's all thank you um I left it intentionally broad to allow our staff to to help help me help myself in this one help me uh generate the enforcement mechanism if necessary within the ordinance or have Town staff uh uh as they do many times with portions of our code Implement a a regimen for uh code for enforcement it got I mean otherwise I I think it's a really good idea just those those technicalities and that's all council member Fernandez and uh before I continue on uh councilman cuadra Garcia would you like to speak at some point wait wait uh hold on but I'm just trying to get an order going here so would you like to speak at some point on this item no okay that that's all right yeah a council member Sanchez would you like to uh oh okay so let's go Fernandez and then Sanchez go ahead thank you mayor um certainly coming back coming from the Planning and Zoning Board you know this this worries me in in some ways um I I'm a little bit reluctant of course to give a a like a broad permission especially when it comes to the threshold of 50% but I I do want to speak specifically and I I wonder if we can make an exception so on a case-by casee basis can we can we look into uh and I'd like to see the staff uh report and and to to really because I know this is a very preliminary but is it possible to do like to to for the staff to make an exception in some cases because I I do know this store in particular um U Miss trellis is here and I know exactly what she's trying to do um I I know that most of her business the vast majority of her business is on online and I think that she was she was hoping to just have uh that that space where she can uh take some pictures uh promote it on social media and and possibly have folks order and she would ship it online and if someone were to walk in because they were patients of the doctor the dentist that perhaps she would get um uh a walk in in that in that in that manner but I think that it does you know the parking is is an issue and and how to enforce the um the the threshold that we're trying to establish but I do think that there is a need for this kind of this kind of uh um company uh retail where they they have the majority of their uh sales would be through online shipping and maybe a very small percentage would be uh a Walkin so I I support the item I just want to I want to hear more of it council member Sanchez thank you Mr Mayor uh first I want to applaud the vice mayor for an idea of thinking outside the box right now a commercial real estate there's you know there's four different facets office retail industrial and uh mixed use or you know more than four uh living dwellings so this idea helps the one category in commercial real estate that is really taking a uh a uh a dive in the opposite direction that we would like get to see it's a very big Domino and it's an idea that can help the office building industry not just with one business but with multiple with the idea of how do we enforce the 50/50 rule every single year that BTR needs to be removed it needs to be renewed at the point of renewal just an idea books should be produced showing the percentage of sales that was online versus um in the store just an idea that I'm putting out there once again Mr hece may I applaud you for thinking outside the box and I have uh you have my full support for this thank you and uh if Mr Quadra Garcia is not going to opine on on this particular issue then what wait perfect thank you um I do have some thoughts um um Mr COA if you can please uh come up to the podium I guess uh where I'll start my question is is are there other avenues available for this type of use to exist in the the district there's always the uh if an applicant feels that there is a particular reason that their business uh can or or should be allowed to exist within a certain Zone uh there's always the conditional use process where they can request that uh there's also a variance process uh where where that uh can be afforded to them and uh Mr vice mayor I'm just curious do you know why uh uh this would not be more appropriate through one of those processes for for the business in particular that I think were because I know this is more legislative in nature but it uh I know it pertains to an issue that we're having within the town's existing office districts do you know why any of the businesses U at issue have not pursued either one of those Avenues yeah uh both uh J uh Council memb member Fernandez and council member Sanchez have both served on the Planning and Zoning Board and obviously you have uh our our principal planner here uh the way it is phrased under both of these um zoning districts it's all other uses including retail uses are hereby prohibited it's my understanding that when the code phrases it like that there is no variance it it's just no used variances are prohibited by Statute so we're not allowed to Grant any variances based on use meaning what I just said is correct correct okay well a conditional use is a special use that is allowed with conditions uh is not a variance it's not something right and it doesn't apply here because correct retail is not allowed it's strictly prohibited correct okay so yeah so just to be clear then a variance would not be available to any of these businesses but a conditional use permit would yes wait I see Susie uh uh that's a little fast that's a little fast um you right now as the code is written conditional uses for retail and the RO do do not exist we do have one little caveat at the end of the uh at the end of the use section that says that uh special uses can be granted as conditional uses and so we are allowed to do that I'm not sure that this one would necessarily qualify because at the end of the day still requires the underlying um uh compant to allow it so that's the part that I'm not sure that this because you still have to comply with the underlining complain which is where I'm thinking most of the resistance would come from right so this would be procedurally in order for for this to be allowed you would have to amend the complant first and then the zoning as as okay well um a I'm not going to continue then on that line of question for now it sounds a lot more involved than we have really the time for tonight yes um so I I'll pledge to work with the vice mayor on this issue with you guys you know we'll we'll censor in the meeting if we have to um I have a lot of concerns a solely because uh especially like the part here where it says cannot uh or without causing congestion and negatively impacting surrounding properties I think that's going to be extremely difficult to enforce not to mention almost any type of additional vehicle you add to to the a road is going to already automatically violate that and I can tell you that in the case of 155th Street where I have my Law Firm um it gets very challenging there especially with BB Hearts now in the area I mean it's not the worst but it it I'll have to have a discussion with staff about some of that because that street is already getting extremely crowded and you know adding retail would definitely be problematic especially if it's not a higher um number of online sales as uh council member Garcia and hburg were were mentioning earlier but obviously I'm all for uh making Miami LS for business grows um to borrow that phrase and and so I would love to work with you on this and with staff and um and obviously just to be clear Mr attorney that voting y today because it's a new business item does not Grant any sort of vested rights uh to the the the use correct okay no the only thing that you've passed is is a moratorium on enforcement of the BTR and if you decide to ause a pause yeah right a pause and and then if you uh decide to vote to move forward on this item it's to work with staff and myself and and coming up with a okay well I'm perfect I'm satisfied as of now are there any any anyone else wishing to discuss this item councilman Garcia uh if someone from staff could get with the business owner kind of explain what that means or what she can and cannot do until the time comes where um and perhaps by by understanding your business a little bit better perhaps we could help you um give you some suggestions while we uh while the staff you know choose this up and we we uh make a decision based on that but uh again we want to make sure you're successful and um so council member the business is there it's up and running we're not going to close them down the only the only Milestone that was that triggered this was the renewal of a BTR and that's that's what you guys have now paused is that allowing those btrs uh you know longer time to renew so in the meantime this will be worked out the vice mayor will meet with staff and then include the rest of you uh through whatever mechanism you guys decide sure and then uh and then I'm only refering remember that this is this will eventually be an ordinance sure so when you when it comes back to you it still can be massaged and tweaked and this whole discussion because we're trying to get definitive answers out of staff and really you know I don't want them to have to be you know providing in incorrect uh information where they can have where the other way where if we do it uh methodically we can bring back uh good stabil you know I agree 100% um um Mr manager I was just wanted to understand her business model right so perhaps there are some suggestions that are could be given to that business model um that even some tweaks might uh you can continue to be successful and perhaps by twe the business model a little bit doesn't you know it allows us not to make too many changes just just trying to understand our business model a little bit more got it basically thank you any other discussion on this item seeing none uh all those in favor say I I I oppose no the item carries the motion is passed congratulations Mr vice mayor we're now on uh my next item which is 14 L political Flags this I believe I called the political Flags yes I did um begin before I continue though I need a make a a motion to wave section 7.2 of the special Rules of Order uh is there a second I'll second second thank you seconded by the vice mayor um all any discussion on the waiver seeing none all those in favor say I I oppose no motion carries and the rule is waved um so I'm going to present my item here on on political flags as we all know uh recently there was a bit of controversy over uh the town's enforcement of our temporary signage code right you know campaign signs are considered temporary signage you don't have a a you know a you H you do have the ability or rather the town has the ability to regulate these these signs and ensure that U we're not littering the city that we're not creating situation where where it's the wild west out there right um but at the same time creating a a space for you to express yourselves and clearly during the election uh you are allowed to have whatever campaign signs you'd like um in support of your candidate uh that got much louder a uh so obviously again once the town do began to enforce its existing code which as I understand it has not been changed since it's uh our code's Inception is that correct Mr manager the provisions for that portion have not have not been changed that's correct excellent so in keeping with that I mean this has been on the books forever I know for a fact that there has been enforce enforcement on this issue of the political Flags in the past has never made its way to the media so I do find it a little suspicious that all of a sudden now this is blown up um and what's more than that is that the code is also in line with what many other cities in Miami day County have so uh I don't think there's anything outrageous about what we're trying to do however however I know that especially lately we tend to be very passionate about our views um I myself was very clear that I voted for President Trump believe the rest of us did as well this is not an enforcement action that has anything to do with uh you know uh backlash against uh president Trump or his supporters in fact some of my own supporters received warning notices for still having the campaign signs out there uh so and again this is only a warning this is not yet a citation and I believe at this point most of the people have complied um or at least they they should have by now uh we heard from Miss earlier today who I will agree was absolutely Mr Trump's biggest supporter perhaps in all of South Florida um you know they're standing every day with us at early voting prior to that I would see her standing in front of Tropical Park holding her Trump sign um and and so as we heard from her even she has now complied um with the regulation uh now that the president has been officially sworn in um and I want to make sure to clarify because maybe the issue is that residents aren't as familiar with the code or did not know it exists because maybe it's tucked away somewhere uh in in our signage rules right where it's not maybe as obvious so maybe one of the things we need to do is is look at separating that part of the code from the rest of it so it has a standalone section so it's easier for residents to locate maybe we also need to more clearly Define what a campaign flag SL campaign sign is versus a generic political flag right one that you know to clearly identify that a campaign flag is one that says vote that says uh for that contains an election year uh versus say a sign that just says Maga for example right um maybe maybe that's what we need to clarify so tonight I'm not I don't have anything specific right um and I simply want our residents to continue to be able to express themselves freely but of course again in a way that is focused on a part uh you know that that does not deviate from the existing code which I think has worked very well for us for 25 going on 25 years so with that my motion is simply to direct staff and the attorneys to come back to us um at one of our future meetings to go ahead and look for ways to clarify the sign code um so that it's clear for residents to understand so that they can know when they would be running a foul of it um and also continue to exercise their first amendment rights again this simply for clarity because maybe that's the real issue that we've been having and yes to uh as the colonel mentioned earlier to be clearer about other political flags that are allowed to be had so that it's not unconstitutionally over Brad right um so so that is my motion and I I hope to get a second I'll second it for discussion thank you uh it's been moved in seconded is there any discussion Mr vice mayor very briefly uh just to say that so long as as from what I heard from your motion it's to have the staff come back with clarification clarification and modification are not the same thing um meaning we would be keeping the rules as they are as you said as they have worked for 25 years we are just trying to make them more readable more accessible and more obvious to our residents so it's not buried into into the the sign portion of our code as you suggested so long as it's that I'm okay with it thank you councilman hburg thank you mayor and I agree that that's a good idea to we got to get the clarification Maybe the ordinance needs some I think it does the code does need some tweaking period uh but we have to be very careful in not getting into content regulation we can't do that all right uh and it it's a it's not going to be easy to determine what a political what a election flag is and what is not election signs are easy we're we all had door hangers signs they're regulated they have to say a certain thing on the sign they're put on a post on the it's it's completely complely different it's temporary pursuing to a specific timeline the our language our political campaign materials are regulated themselves right you don't have a First Amendment right necessarily to campaign right it's regulated speech we have to put specific things in our campaign materials right um but a resident and a flag that that's much it's a much more Nuance uh regulation content and I think it's it's difficult for code to enforce and be subjective and I don't think we should if we can if we can modify the code to make it not subjective but in that point we're going to have to say well if the flag says election where the flag says 2024 then it's an election flag I I think you're getting really close there to content regulation and flags if you look at the other codes for other towns we can say how many flags you have where you put the flags the size of the flags you have to put it on a Flag fold you don't have to put onag we're allowed to do that and we're allowed to regulate of course commercial speech but political speech non-commercial speech I I think we we're going to be very close in my opinion I think uh I didn't see this as a big issue the flags uh I would love for it to just be American flags everywhere don't get me wrong but it's I don't see this as as something that the town needs to fight on and I think we're putting ourselves in a in a comp complicated situation and then we're going to put Town staff in a complicated situation and being subjective or we put in the code and we start regulating the content of the flag in the code and that puts us in a in a in a bad position potentially as well so I I agree let's look into it let's be very careful about it um but you know it's it's not easy it's a nuisance issue thank you uh anyone else wishing to speak on this issue council member Fernandez thank you mayor oh yeah I I do think that that there's Nuance but I what I I'm clear on is that first to to the mayor's point that he stated that I think that there's from this Council and from I hope from staff that it's not a backlash against who is our our our our president it and we're all actually we just we happen to all support him but there is we we do have a right to regulate um when it comes to campaign signs there are 29 municipalities including Miami day County that have uh similar in fact most of them have stricter uh campaign uh rules C uh um rules for campaign signs so I think that we do have to look into it but I do think that there are distinctions between campaign signs even if they have a a even if they have what what I what I want to be clear on is if if it has a year I do think that it's a campaign sign if it has the the president's name and a vice president's name I think it also would would categorize as a as a campaign sign I'm going to let the attorneys and staff willine on that but um I think that we do need to stick to what has worked for us and what is currently on the books and um and I just want to hear back from from staff any other council member wishing to speak on this item through the chair council member Garcia you want J wait wait wait wait wait so so did you want to say something or oh okay sorry Council council member Garcia thank you I think all of agree that the the rights of of Miami Lakers as Citizens are Paramount to what we do here right we want to make sure we're they they have their right to for free speech and to and I I want the residents to know that that's our number one priority and we're not trying to uh stop anything stop you from expressing yourself as far as um look staff looking into this we want to make sure that anything we do or even the existing code uh make sure that we're we're making sure we're following those those you know those those rights uh however um as far as campaign signs those rules were put into place for one reason um to keep your quality of life high and to make sure that your property values are High I mean if you drive around Dade County there are signs political signs up to this day from like 10 years ago um and that's what the town's trying to avoid the trying the town is trying to avoid although I would have you know I'm open to waiting for the inauguration date to to to make that maybe we can make that adjustment cuz I think we could have waited a little bit but as far as why the town does what it does it's for your property values it's to make sure that your neighbors and and your your household uh our our you know our neighbor is not somebody Drives By A Town says wow look at all these signs I don't want to live there or I don't always political signs so um so I think that's the reason we we you know we're doing this so again let's let's look at staff and see if we're making sure we're following all the rules and regulation the rights of our residents first and um and make sure that we're maintaining the the level of uh quality here in town of Miami Lakes that the residents expect Mr Mayor uh well be before uh uh I come to you are there any other council members um well if you don't mind a since you had gone already uh did you have anything you wanted to add one more time nothing uh councilman Quadra Garcia no sir okay so we'll go to the attorney and then we'll go to council member uh hburg um we tried to revamp the code right after the read decision came out what year that was I don't remember I took an offense because 2015 I took offense with my bosses bosses at the time uh who did not want to revamp the code and I explained uh some of the hazards let's just say my understanding is though it was tweaked slightly since then if I'm not mistaken but it wasn't a major rewrite and I agree that we should look into it what I will not accept ever is that we targeted anybody we didn't Target a single person we we cited the mayor think about how difficult that is that's not something we take lightly and I won't accept from anyone even some people who I highly respect that I would ever allow anything like that to occur as far as targeting Trump I was going to go I me and the mayor were going to go to to the inauguration so I'm sorry when these things Catch Fire and people start talking about we're talking targeting Trump and everything else man that's just innuendo and and it's offensive you know it's it's my Integrity the Integrity of everybody up here being questioned like that time after time and people just repeating it and repeating it especially people that know me to think that I would allow that as the attorney for this town I'm not accepting that and and I won't and and it's offensive to everybody up here to to insinuate that we would Target somebody politically like that we come from a country where that's exactly what happened and H is happening today still so it's not okay thank you thank you council member hburg yeah just just a comment for staff and and legal and we can talk about it later uh when I looked at the prior at the sign ordinance for other ordinances in in mi media County I did notice that there A lot of times they either excluded Flags or put a different thing about Flags I think that's the issue right we got to make sure that again that tweak it get the about the specific flag issue but some of these ordinance actually exclude flag so it's just it's something that to look carefully at what other town do so we can get a good idea of what makes most sense for us this is just one of the Articles it's like 40 pages this is just one of the Articles discussing the read decision people don't understand how complicated the read decision is for lawyers there were there are nine justices I believe there are six opinions to navigate through some of them want you to apply the or people argue that the decision says if you got to read it to regulate it you can't do it but then Justice alito's opinion allows you to read it and in fact imposes the obligation to read it and everything else it is a mindfield to navigate through there have been decisions since then that I think are providing some clarity um and I'll go through all that I mean I I I really think it needs a workshop this is not um this is not that easy uh this is not that easy to do um but there and I believe this should be the standard the First Amendment right is something that requires strict scrutiny which is the highest standard of scrutiny uh by the government there's you know the first amendment is probably the most important amendment to me right after the fourth um and the fourth being right after just search and seizure government's searching and seizing so you know it's something that we'll have to look at um it's not an easy task uh to do and there's people who are going to have a have an issue with it thank you thank you Mr attorney I can take a hint yeah and I and I hear what you're saying councilman hburg about not veering into content regulation um I do think however and obviously we'll we'll need I'll need to expose further with the attorneys and then at our Workshop but uh my my concern is uh or rather what I think will work is if we follow what current state statutes regulate as far as what the continent political science must say right they require that you need to have a a disclaimer etc etc I think as long as we we closely adhere to what the statute says that a flag that clearly says vote for or elect reelect I think if we follow that I think we're closer to being within bounds right um yeah and so I agree with you though you know the you know maybe the year might be a little more complic licated but uh but I agree with you that that uh we got to be careful but there's there's a way to do this and again the goal here is just to clarify what's already there right um not to exclude particular signs but beyond you know because again we're not even excluding them in this case we're just clarifying what's already prohibited past a certain time now my concern with the whole letting it uh you know letting a sign stay there past uh uh the inauguration day is obviously we don't have a presidential election every two years we only have one every four it's one right and then what are we going to do we're going to have code uh go around and say okay well Josh Diez was formerly elected December 10 so seven days after that his supporters have to uh take down their signs but then uh president Trump's supporters can wait until the 21st when he's inaugurated um so it just becomes a logistical nightmare so a we got to we got to you know we'll figure that out too but I think the biggest issue that the residents are looking for is some clarity as far as what constitutes a temporary political sign that can be regulated uh regulated um council member Sanchez and and then uh hopefully we can continue moving there's also a secondary issue here that um hasn't been brought up um the flag that started this topic of conversation um Old Glory is something that I hold very near and dear being a US Navy veteran and to have something no matter what it is to be placed on top of the image of Old Glory that that shouldn't happen the code should dictate Old Glory stays the way she is um because there are Traditions that follow for the the ceremonial retirement of of an American flag so it doesn't matter if it's if it's a political one or any other type nothing should be superimposed over an American flag and I think that is something that should also be included in the code thank you council member uh Sanchez any any further questions or or comments or can we move on okay seeing none we're now on the vote on 14 L all those in favor say I I all oppose no seeing none the item carries and with that we are now on item 10 the consent calendar is there a motion so moved second it's been moved and seconded all those in favor say I I I I'll oppose no the consent calendar passes we have no items on first reading on no ordinances rather on first reading none on second reading reading either where on 13 resolutions a which is tree trimming vendor registration program um I guess if uh May yeah Mr manager if you can go ahead and kind of provide background for our newer members especially on on what this is and for the members of the public yeah the what this is this is an item that uh former vice mayor Tony Fernandez brought back in September wanting us to have some type of a system to vet tree trimmers in the town There's a recent uh recently passed a statute that prohibits iits us requiring uh tree trimmers to be regulated or to be uh approved by the town so what this system is here is going to be a vetting system for us to be able to establish certain criteria for uh tree trimming companies to get like on a pref preferred provider list that way uh Town residents if they're going to do tree trimming on their on their private uh property they can go to this list they know these uh vendors have been vetted by the town and then they can go to that list if they so choose they don't have to but they'll that'll be at their disposal and they'll have that opportunity uh to select somebody from that list okay um I with that I'll turn it over to the council is there a motion on this it's been moved by council member Garcia is there a second I'll second oh uh council member Sanchez seconds uh we're on discussion who uh so because you seconded it uh council member Sanchez you uh go go ahead I do believe this is a great program um we have met individuals in town that are looking for tree trimming the proper way they're not looking to be penalized by by the town for doing the wrong thing as Mr Peterman said we need to vet those individuals that are going to have a major part in the aesthetic of our town with our tree triming we're very proud of our trees we want to make sure that they are kept in a proper way so you know I'm I'm in favor of this resolution of having the uh the vetting program take take it place any other uh council members wishing to discuss this item okay uh Mr vice mayor go ahead so I just want to be clear uh does this resolution require that any tree trimming be performed by the vendors that are registered under the program no it doesn't require it can it no it's Pro prohibited by t uh State Statute so we can establish this preferred provider list but we can't obligate uh residents to only use people from that list okay I only bring this up because as you may know uh we had that issue a few weeks ago with believe it was fpl's vendor that came in and just beheaded trees it was it was a it was a hack job yeah FPL has different protections that are outside of this list here because they're um a regulated utility and they have different rights they have notification issues and that's where they drop the ball they they should have notified the town they have historically they always have but they're supposed to notify us but they have some much much more leeway on how they trim the trees no whatever it takes to make the uh make the uh area safe and the trees safe and make them uh you know move them far away from the power lines they have much more leeway than the average person yeah otherwise I I think that this is a great plan a great idea um assuming it gets the approval of my colleagues um I will recommend uh Mr Town manager that you do work with FPL so that they switch to one of these vendors that's approved through the chair council member Garcia um I also believe this is a great idea I I would love to see the staff once we decide on these vendors to display them prominently on our website to send that information through um through social media to to get it out there through the parks department with Flyers whatever it takes because a lot of um our our residents are being swindled by you know these these contractors and landscapers who you know high hat these trees and it's it destroys a tree of 40 50 years and so absolutely so Miami Lakes approved should be stamped prominently on our website uh and we should educate them on that about that and Tree City USA approved whatever we have to do to make it use these vendors once we approve them yeah it'll be a dynamic list because uh vendors will be going onto the list periodically as they see fit the renewal they may not renew so it'll be a dynamic list but the the fact that we have a list and how to find it that that information will make sure that uh it's prominent and easy to find for residents 100% thank you sir anyone else through the chair okay uh councilman Quadra Garcia thank you Mr Mayor uh basically I'm going to echo on vice mayor uh um's uh opinion but I've got something more to add to that how do we know that these vendors uh are qualified who qualifies them I mean we you know how do we know that these people are going to be the right fit for for the the vendors that we're going to vet and put on on the list yes we're going to qualify them you're we're there's going to be a series of criteria that we're going to check them across and you know based on different things like insurances and certifications and those kinds of things and that's how they're going to be able to get on onto our list so we're going to vet them based on a criteria that the parks department has uh has set up and then we're going to put them on our list based on our criteria thank you anyone else and I'll just um make a comment uh uh on behalf of former vice mayor Fernandez that the spirit of the item comes from um ensuring that especially the elderly are not being taken advantage of by unscrupulous vendors right and hack cracking trees then thereby causing them to deal with the code uh fallout from that right the code enforcement fine Fallout so I think this is a sensible idea I like it this was actually something that councilman Tony Fernand uh pardon me to many Tony's uh council member Tony llama had tried to uh look at back in the day as well especially with those landscapers that were constantly throwing the tree trimmings and everything else their waste basically into our Lakes uh creating an issue um and it was it was it's it's just uh an issue unfortunately that uh we have a little control over but this would be a good way of making sure that our residents have access to information on who's a good vendor who knows what they're doing um so I fully support this uh with that said um there being no fur further discussion all those in favor say I I all oppos no the item passes so congratulations to uh the former vice mayor you know a okay with that we are out of resolutions and we're uh back onto new business we're beginning with the vice mayor's item 14a um this is a quite simple item uh we need a way of commending our employees who do well and of holding accountable those that don't um in speaking with the town manager earlier today um he did say uh that there are several methods of doing this aside from just the the ID badges um one of them being uh I guess uh expanding the use of names on the polos that way it's a little bit classier a little bit nicer um that as of right now most if not all Town staff has business cards uh on them so that addresses that part of this motion yeah we'll we'll do a review and anybody who who deals with the public we're going to make sure that they have uh business cards but to to the extent that I bring this to my colleagues on the council my my motion is simple it's to direct the town manager to make sure that we are able to uh when residents come to us they come to us with a name not a description uh because I have quite literally had uh people come it was the the top blonde in this location this I'm like that's like 17 people uh that they can have a name whether it be a magnetic name tag on the shirt uh the name embroidered on on the polo a badge whatever the case may be uh but you know I leave it up to the manager's discretion um but that's my motion to direct the manager to see how we can uh improve identification of our town staff is there a second I'll second okay seconded by council member Sanchez uh any discussion on this item seeing none all those in favor say I I oppose no eyes have it the motion carries congratulations okay all right so a 14b as I understand it is is not permitted at this time um so he we're going to skip that one uh we covered 14c and now we are on uh 14d which counc member yeah council member Garcia do you mind if I just briefly explain why it's not permitted and and or can I be can I sure or if you want uh just to to invite the attorney to explain you know as a clarification that you know that's welcome as well I just don't want to spend too much time no no no I mean this item was to discuss advisory boards uh I know last Council we we decided to end that brand new Council I can't discuss we can't discuss anything within six months of of an item being uh voted down so I just want everybody to know and the council we I think it's a good idea within after in three months from now in six six months passes if we can discuss especially since some workshops would already be given and see you know about the discussion about boards in their place or do do they have a place don't they have a place so that's that's what the item was so basically thank you okay um I think this is sufficient explanation uh so 14d councilman hburg thank you Mr Mayor and uh this is pretty straightforward regarding uh how we present the agendas it's part of our special Rules of Order uh I think it's a good idea to have the police report earlier on in the meetings you can see how the meetings go obviously Public Safety is is Paramount for us uh and having the police report done earlier brings more transparency gives us the opportunity to ask the police qu the police major questions earlier in the meeting it actually could potentially help us for the the MBI items later uh but ultimately it it makes sense for the flow for for Resident involvement uh one of the most common things that I get I got when knocking on doors is hey people speed hey you know I see crime going on and in reality we have a very low caring rate we have a great police Department uh and I want that to be shown and I want that I think it makes sense to have that happen earlier in the meeting it'll be through the town manager's office I'm not saying that the major is is able to leave early or anything like that I don't know I just want to know how much how much he had to pay you for this it I think it makes sense uh it's just a matter of having a good flow and and keeping police up front in front of our residents council member if it's acceptable to you if this passes that we can slot it under special presentations as a standing uh presentation under special presentations and that way the major can make his presentation during that thing so we don't have to create a whole new however you in the majors think makes most sense I'm fine I just think it should happen much earlier in the meeting not at 11 o'clock at night that's all those are between committee reports and consent agenda so it's early on sounds good perfect yeah I I'll second for discussion oh okay uh so council member Fernanda seconds uh the motion uh you go ahead you recognized to discuss thank you mayor uh no I I I think it's a good idea in fact if if uh the major whomever it is is representing the police department uh when when he is going to speak on on the crime and whatever is taking place the residents the majority of the residents are stay or are present earlier in the meeting so that they'll be able to hear more of it so I'm I'm good with that okay any other discussion all right seeing none all those in favor say I I all oppose no the item passes 14 D is now part of our rules uh council member Quadra Garcia legalization of artificial turf you are recognized to present your item thank you Mr Mayor after Consulting with the town manager and Deputy Town attorney I'm amending my item to remove and request for the moratorium and simply request would be for my colleagu to join me on asking Our Town attorney to seek an option from the county attorney whether the county code explicitly prohibits the installation of of artificial grass in residential homes that is his motion is there a second I'll second for discussion um Council Garcia you recognized thank you mayor it was my understanding um um weren't we looking into that already from La previous Council uh last year's some Council meetings that we're looking into and there we did get an an answer that we had to follow the the county codes in certain areas did you have a can you give a clarification on that yes councilman so we currently yes I mean there's many areas of our code where the county preempts us and the county has certain standards then we can make them stricter but we can't make them producer um this is one of those now it's it's my understanding that uh verbally uh councilman Quadra Garcia Quadra received some information that perhaps uh the county code is not specific with regards to artificial turf so if is that your understanding it's that's not my understanding my understanding is that the way that it's written especially when discussing impervious areas versus perious areas that imper that artificial grass falls within that uh category of impervious areas and this is something that I know the uh Town planner looked into uh and I I worked with her and and I respect very much her her opinion especially on these type of definitions which are technical as far as what is Landscaping what is perious material impervious material however if you this Council desires for uh me to ask for a formal written opinion from the county attorney I'm more than happy to do so any other discussion on this item um if I mayburg and then vice mayor Mora are there any other towns that permit artificial grass and in residential areas or is this just strictly the county doesn't permit it and that's it there's no other towns that municipalities that have an exception I I I believe that when we were looking at it there are other cities that hi um I had a quick discussion so we have um approved and you you well not prior Council approved um artificial turf to be used in areas where otherwise you would be allowed to pave so we allow artificial turf in the town of Miami Lakes today which is correct only on the rear yard because in the front um you need to have roots and Landscaping wherever you don't have a driveway technically you could have an artificial turf driveway but it wouldn't be a great idea because you would just dig yourself right into your own mug but um at that same you know in the rear yard it is allowed whever you would otherwise be allowed to pave so um basically anywhere around your swimming pool if you have a swimming pool or um um and now I'm going to draw a blank and say this wrong but there's a certain percentage of the of the backyard that you're allowed to pave you can use artificial turf in that area that being said um in a recent uh the the county has been going through some reevaluation of some of their ordinances and we're actually been invited to several workshops in the last few months uh there's another one coming up I'll be happy to pass it along because it's mostly for elected officials uh you might all um want to ask your questions there they are now um trying to enforce really heavily their storm water um uh and and what what amount of storm water ends up in in in durm right so durm is really concerned about this and one of the problems that we have with storm run runoff is private properties that are putting in things like artificial turf and a lot of um um Paving and they're going to be getting more strict about what they permit and what they enforce uh that being said we always want to stay on the good side of the county and not on the bad side we don't want them coming in here enforcing things that we're not enforcing properly and that that is where we're trying to stay ahead of of that game um I did ask verbally of both the planner that was in charge of the County's operation and the Derm director they were both together at one point and I asked of both of them if what we have in our code today complies with the spirit of what they're trying to do and they verbally said yes that's the that's what we would like to see in municipalities so it it was sort of a little bit of a reassurance that we are in the right path that being said I'm happy to continue to discuss this and find different Avenues and explore new directions uh because that's what we here for through the chair um unless someone else I apologize so were were we on councilman hburg or or did he currently have the flone no that I'm good that's all that's my question okay well were but I had recognized uh the vice mayor and then we'll go to council member graio sure uh very briefly to the anyone in the staff is there any sort of cost or fee associated with requesting an attorney opinion uh vice mayor no okay in that case I'll just State on the record that I I'll approve the item uh because there's no harm in knowledge especially when there's no fee um but nonetheless it I will say I I find it a very difficult hurdle for me personally to overcome to allow uh artificial turf in the town of Miami Lakes uh our green spaces our Greenery is a pride in this town um and as has been discussed in Prior Council meetings uh when this has been brought back brought before us in the past uh the uniformity is a gigantic concern once you start allowing Mass swabs of uh carpet essentially um on front yards you have one type of grass here another type here at some point they got to meet up uh and there's no discussion about how that works cuz as it is right now you just have a patch of grass between two yards maybe a hedge and there's recognized methods of hey you cut your side of the grass I cut my side of the grass but I could actually foresee a lot of property boundary disputes here as a result of this I might make some money but but realistically speaking this is this is something that I don't think goes with the character of our town in the past I will say I have supported certain um exceptions to specific areas um what was that uh huh it's not just you're you're correct it's where the grass doesn't grow but it's not just that simple because as uh has been made um as I've been made aware there are places where grass might not grow well but Landscaping still does um that there's other Shrubbery other uh uh Flora that can uh survive if there's shade if there's too much uh too much shade too much sun there's a plant for that basically um and then at the end of the day but I was more referring to uh what was what's the community where there's like uh rectangular Planters in the middle of the parking lot uh little thing those um is it Andrew Lake Andrew or lock Andrew maybe with milgate um where it is truly desolate there there's no irrigation there's no nothing and those are very minor exceptions though extremely minor exceptions um other I don't even know that Landscaping is actually a requirement uh for that particular parking lot or whether whether that was a design Choice most likely Landscaping was required in all the places where there's supposed to be dirt now that being said it wouldn't be out of the norm that we would maybe find good replacements for landscaping and that would be that would be something else that we could do instead um maybe start looking into like the same thing that we did with the tree um list that we that you guys approved well the prior Council approved a few years ago where we had a list of trees that were recommended for the town we could do a similar thing with ground covers and have a list of ground cover that do well in our area under different conditions say shade um and the such and that that would be a a simple little study that could be done by uh a good landscape architect and give us a good list of solutions that we can offer to communities HOAs and single family homes thank you through the chair council member Garcia uh wait before we get to uh to you because he had been waiting yeah sorry you don't mind um I I think as elected officials we need to take a little responsibility for the confusion because we have we have discussed this I know since I've been here the last two years and before that uh we've talked to Residents and there's a confusion on what's allowed what's not allowed um I think all of us as a body and staff perhaps can do a better job uh not that we're doing a bad job but there's always room for improvement to set forth what is allowed and and and um make sure that we're passing that information on to the residents because I've I've heard so many different things from residents and I have to come back and ask staff hey even I've heard it many times sometimes I I I go well wait a second um can we make sure that we're educating the our residents perhaps a a visual aid on what's allowed what's not allowed as of right now the reasons why it's not allowed and you know the history of of you know you know why we're not letting it happen through durm and the reasons why so then at least we they know what's allowed what's not allowed so we can stop any further um you know installation of grass of artificial turf uh because it's what's happening is people are putting the turf and then they're asking for for guidance after so I think we all can do a better job guys I know I can in educating the residents on what's allowed what's not allowed simple visual a we email them we put it on the website whatever it takes Spanish English just let them know hey this is where it is right now because of these reasons if there's room for change uh I don't even mention room for change right now that's something that the county has to approve because we can't make it E we have to follow be at least as tough as their rules and that's something that a lot of residents don't understand we're preempted by a lot of these things from the county and the state um so I think a better education on what is allowed what is not allowed avoid the confusion we're all on the same page guys so we're giving the same answers right to the residents and um that'll avoid a lot of confusion in the future that's just my two cents on that aspect of it councilman Quadra Garcia let me leave something real clear for the records I'm not an expert in artificial turf you guys have seen me I brought a several pieces of artificial turf I was going to actually bring an expert uh to talk about it there's been rumors that artificial turf has no seepage well that is not true a good artificial turf uh can rain and have excellent seepage what I'm going to try to to to the reason I'm here trying to get an idea I have a lot of elderly people that have this turf or this artificial turf in front of their property because they have tried to grow grass on several occasions whether they weed and feed it whatever they do they still get whether it's chinch bugs whatever the the grass dies pretty much in that area so do we want to see it look in real bad shape where it's all dead grass or do we want to see a nice high quality high standard low amount of density of this artificial turf and there's another thing that I want to say if you really look at it it say it can save us even water I know we're not in California but it could save water so all I'm asking is have Renee Garcia was going to be here today uh Senator Renee Garcia was going to be here to support or at least look into helping us if it can move forward again if it can't move forward all I ask is that we give those individuals that have the artificial turf in their front yards at least uh 180 days while we get back uh will we get the the county to come back and tell us what what could happen what can we do is it doable or not doable I mean I respect every you know that's why I moved to this this town is because of its beauty and I want to be one of the the ones that when I leave here in four days in four years I want to make it look or leave this town in a lot beautiful condition than than it is so whatever uh you know you guys want to do I I just ask you that at least if we can uh you know direct staff to figure out if we can talk to the County attorneys and uh I guess my question to you though is specifically what is it that you're asking us to do well um the moratorium but an opinion to to say what I think the town attorney knows go go go ahead Mr just just to help all all of you out Mr Mayor if I may um I think from my conversations with uh councilman gcia Quadra is that he wants me to reach out to the county attorney and just get a formal opinion as to their interpretation of the county code why but I guess my question would be why do we care what the County Attorney think about our code no about their code to get an interpretation on their code but why do I care well I guess because they may they may bee preempting us so we just want to make sure that they're they are not preempting correct so that then we would have more latitude to make modifications to our code but why can't for example the attorneys just look up themselves whether or not we're preempted so so mayor we have and I've I've done that with uh director Alonzo and our interpretation is based on the way that it discusses impervious and based on our conversation with conversations that uh M Alonzo's had with staff at the county level it's not allowed now if uh councilman Garcia cuadra has received information or heard that County attorneys are opining on something different I'm I'm more than happy to to seek a written opinion if that's the direction of the council I mean look and I understand how passionate you feel about this issue and I'll just reiterate for the issue why I am completely against expanding Turf Beyond where it's already at right the issue for me is not that it doesn't seep well of course it does right as you pointed out repeatedly and then you took me to your house and I saw it for myself right the turf that you have currently in your front yard um it does allow and especially when it rains you don't see it but the issue that I have is not in a in a smaller rainstorm whether I can see water or not my issue is whether and unequivocally this is the case my issue is whether or not the the artificial turf actually absorbs water and unequivocally it does not absorb water it's plastic right at the end of the day so even if the water can go under so I can't see it puddling or anything like that my concern is not the puddling it's making sure that the water dissipates as in it gets absorbed and evaporates absorbs you know whatever as quickly as possible so we don't make our flooding issues worse than town and as the the planner mentioned earlier uh also uh adding contaminant into our groundwater um we know that these that these Turf materials are often they often contain past chemicals right uh they take far longer to uh biodegrade once thrown into a landfill uh so that creates other issues so for environmental drain and practical drainage reasons as well as just the fact that I agree with you right that you know Turf has come a long way it's not like that cheesy almost like uh golf course you know mini golf type uh Turf that we used to see it's much more advanced right and to get the good stuff it's very expensive but remember and you were there I believe at our at our Sunshine meeting that we had it was you me uh former vice mayor Fernandez and I think uh um U that's right vice mayor Mora was there as well we had a very extensive conversation on this and the other problem is it's a logistical nightmare to basically say show me your papers is this the right type of turf that you're using and then once they install uh the the turf then and and let's say they put the wrong one that we're still going to have the same issue everybody saying well a you know like I don't want to take it off so you know what go pound Sam you know and then we now we have the issue where we have the turf other residents are getting the idea that we permit the turf you know but it's really just that one group of residents don't want to uh you know to pay the fine and they're going to wait and let it accumulate and until later anyway I don't want to relitigate with you know trying to get us out of here at a good time I don't want to relitigate these past issues but I just want to reiterate for the public what my prior concerns have been on this issue why for me I'd rather not even you know bother with the county as far as what their opinion is on that I think the problem has a issue where they try to you know Mom us to death you know where they think they know better than we do and yet at the same time they throw a tantrum every time the state does that to them and the last thing I want to do is even try to ask them for permission right if they have a problem with it then they can just say so I do know that that commissioner Garcia shares your view and he and I have respectfully and strongly disagreed though on this issue um and I'm going to continue that that position and for that reason I can't support your item because I just don't think that we need to bother ourselves with what the county does unless um you know there is an issue and for that I think we have adequate knowledge among our attorneys and our staff you know to bring on their own whatever revisions are required to our code if we're out of compliance um but I just don't want to be asking you know Mommy and Daddy from the county you know for permission to you know run our own Affairs and and I also just as I mentioned before just have my own issues with with artificial turf but I just wanted to put that on the record uh for for the for um for the public obviously I know you feel very strongly about it and I agree with you again it's come a long way but it just creates a bunch of other issues that are are still not resolved for me um so I just wanted to to put that out there would uh to my left uh do any of you guys have any additional comments please thank you mayor council member foran I I think I've made it clear in the past um on the Planning and Zoning Board as well as my opinions here in front of the the council that preceded me uh I will I will not agree to any artificial turf in the front yard um whether it's I mean what's what's already approved is okay it's it's already in the book you know the the ornamental stuff between the the slabs of of the concrete the driveway um but aside from that I'm I'm okay with even requesting the the letter from the attorney I I don't see any harm in that but just for the record uh you won't be getting any support from me for any for any artificial turf in the front yard through the uh through the chair can we at least uh uh see if we can give uh the the individuals that have uh this Turf to be removed at least uh some time uh what can be the time uh permitted so we can remove uh uh I think he has to recuse himself for that yeah a couple of things before we get there a um council member Sanchez do you have anything to say I do um this is a a a micro issue on a bigger Spectrum what comes to mind is Tree City USA we have that designation we've had it for a very long time artificial turf would be the tip of the iceberg artificial turf deters Wildlife which helps us maintain our trees and our canopies and our flowers everything like that so besides the fact of the drainage issues and the appearance where one neighborhood have is the other don't it just doesn't have create a cohesive image it's an entire ecosystem that I feel that would be um affected detrimentally in the long term so I cannot support the artificial turf at 100% of a property I agree with the backyard um the way that it currently stands but I cannot agree with having it everywhere at all times Mr Mayor he council member hburg and and uh just really quickly the to councilman quad Garcia because the town is currently engaged in some enforcement action with your property as I understand it I think anything that gets close to discussing or advocating for or voting on anything related to a moratorium on enforcement or anything like that would be improper and I and for your for you know for you to be okay and not run a foul of any ethical rules it would be prudent to step into the break room there and and you know let's see what what your other colleagues say but it just you have to be very careful with that um so it's not to generate any issues um so I just want you to be aware you know looking out for you uh council member hburg yeah so uh you know I was I was leaning on saying why not just ask the county but I Mr Mayor I share your sentiment about that and and it looks like we don't have support on this Council to add Turf so if we're not going to vote for it anyway why are we going to the county why are we asking for it why are we bothering it I I share the sentiment of the majority of my colleagues I think what we have is enough I think it would be a a a code violation nightmare to enforce the turf I think it would be a writing the code to allow Turf would be a nightmare what's good Turf what's not oh we can only make people spend a lot of money in the turf because only the best Turf is allowed uh and and and Council men sanas you really nailed it there on on the on the on the ecosystem issue right so uh I I won't be I can't support any additional artificial turf as well and I I my question to staff is what's going on with the current violations I remember campaigning talking about I feel like we've been talking about this for years about a moratorium I I don't understand where we're at but at some point we just got to move on and say there's no more Turf and could in answering his question can you know also specifically for the benefit of our other colleagues that are new here explain uh what we covered at the sunshine meeting uh because I believe you were there as well as what the educational steps that we were going to take out out of that were right because if I'm not mistaken we were going to uh to work with uh with staff uh pardon me with residents on different types of grass that grow better in the shade and everything else to address some of the issues of chinch bugs and inadequate sunlight so just if you could uh address it that would be perfect thank you good evening mayor vice mayor of counsel Danny Angel director of building zoning code enforcement and so to to provide some context to the issue um the initial uh moratorium was in place in 2022 so there was no enforcement action taken from 2022 to 2024 the moratorium was removed we started um issuing violation notices um now some cases are in citation status some some cases are in appeal status so the equity of enforcement I mean we can't really put an arrow a pinpoint on where it's actually at as far as enforcement I will tell you I mean going back to uh councilman Garcia's Point as far as causing confusion into the issue unfortunately that has been happening for the last three years now where even my guys don't even know hey are we still enforcing this week are we not enforcing this week so at the end of the day I think we would all benefit from a clear and concise stance uh from you all from the council if we are going to proceed with enforcement um like I said there's about 30 to 50 cases probably right now that are in some type of status either a warning citation appeal and or lean status as far as the education component every single time that uh resident does call us regarding this type of issue we take the time out uh to provide uh a Florida friendly landscape manual material that's available at the University of Florida extension office we provide them with links um and also just some some suggestions as far as a shade tolerant uh grasses as far as shrubs um and I'll take uh a note from our town planner anything that has roots in the ground that's all we care about so once you have roots in the ground you have an established uh retention and drainage type of component to the landscaping material here in the town of M Lakes had any questions any any other uh uh discussion on this item going once going twice okay Madame clerk please call the RW on this one since I I do believe that there'll be some opposition if I just get a clarification what exactly are we voting on right now well again as I understand it it's to ask or to okay yes I I I just wanted to make sure it wasn't about enforcement or whatever thank you correct yeah um so again yes it's asking them which uh I think you and I both agree um with that Madame clerk council member Fernandez yes council member Sanchez no council member Quadra we're voting on your item make sure you turn on the the mic say no council member Garcia yes council member hburg no a vice mayor Mora no mayor Diez no the motion fails we're now on item uh 14 G Doge Advisory board by council member Garcia thank you so much mayor um so what I'd like to discuss with our um with my colleagues and I know doge is something that U Department of um of of U government um efficiency right um so what I'd like to discuss is perhaps creating something similar to a doge Advisory Board of residents business and governmental um U people that have experience in budgets former you know Town managers um to go over especially process of procurement to help us find efficiencies in our processes um to save as much tax dollars as possible having an outside eye even if we save half a percent here you know quarter percent here 1% here having outside eye uh being able to look at our processes and especially in procurement right uh are we doing that the best way and I have 100% um I believe our staff do a good job um but I think that just always having some some outside eye bringing things up that we might have missed K might save us you know a dollar here a dollar there so I want to discuss with my uh colleagues how how would you like to proceed uh if this something you're interested in would you like to have a formal committee or uh just a a part-time committee put together uh when the budget cycle comes along or you know you know are not formalizing as much or making it uh making it a loose Advisory Board uh so I'd love to hear your opinion if you think it's a good idea and how do how do you like to proceed before we can discuss is there a second I think his motion was to discuss uh creating a a type of advisory body a do advisory body he was opening the door to having uh certain conditions and restrictions on whatever he's created second for discussion okay it's been moved and seconded uh vice mayor number one as to the question you posed there towards the end in terms of whether it should be a a fullon committee versus a part-time versus maybe just something that maybe an uh I think the right word is ad hoc for a specific purpose I don't even know if any of those what was the sheriff's ad hoc committee uh subject to Sunshine and all the rules of committees yes yes sir okay yeah that that's where I kind of run a foul is these committees a committee like Doge um if you were to create it it's going to be hampered down by the very rules that govern our committees um I think that a more open free flow of discussion is actually very conducive I like the idea but possibly um structuring it in a different way as possibly open workshops or uh where where we as a town are just playing host they're in full control it's their own body we have no control over them um they're we're just giving them a space and saying hey come to town hall in these days to talk about ways to make our government better now that's no longer subject to sunshine it's no longer subject to uh you know the the frankly anti- collaboration and rules that that hurt some of our committees um I don't know how the rest of the dice feels but I just feel like that might be a little bit more productive of a conversation nonetheless I do like the idea I think we're all in favor of making our government more efficient additional discussion additional discussion uh council member hburg yeah I I I like uh the vice mayor's idea obviously I'm all for Resident involvement you know when I first when I first saw the item I I get the spirit of the item I feel like that's our this is almost that this is our job though right and we have a brand new Council hopefully we take that to to hard and really look at the budget and and look at what we need to do uh if there's specific people that you think can help us let's bring them in let's speak to them let's set something up but you know if you get if we find those five people then they can't even speak to each other unless we schedule it go to the committee publicly notice it we've seen that issue with with committees before I remember some committee came up here I remember it it was the vice mayor Fernandez who told everyone you guys want to be involved but then you're going to put yourself in a committee you're going to make yourself do all these rules now you can't even text each other you know so uh I like the spirit I just don't know if that's the best way to to do it um I am open to though trying to figure out how we can invite those people there's a few people I'm thinking of and get them together where we don't have to tie them down like like the vice mayor said additional discussion uh council member uh uh Fernandez pardon thank you mayor I'll piggy back on on both of their comments I I do think that the spirit of the item is is I think we're we're all for government efficiency um I don't know how that looks um I'd like to hear more about it I don't know exactly whether it's in a committee setting or or experts but you know let let's see let's see where it goes Council me council member Quadra Garcia I'd like to know thank you Mr Mayor I'd like to know a little more more about it uh sure they'll know nothing about it I'd like to hear it yeah so the spirit of the item is to try to get experts uh in not only government but procurement to see if we can save some tax Bayer dollars uh obviously there's there there isn't an appetite for an actual committee so what I would suggest is perhaps um during our Workshop period uh with our budget uh we could as a town invite uh we can all present we all know uh you know uh government officials former government officials former councilmen former mayors from different towns perhaps we can invite them and have a section in our Workshop budget Workshop where we can give them some information uh maybe previously on what we're working on and and get their ideas on what they feel what's worked for them in the past so they can educate us and our staff and maybe we can Implement some of their ideas and perhaps save some money uh while we do so so I I guess I would say in lie of the official uh Doge committee um add that request to our budget workshops and invite each of us invite three or four individuals who feel might add something to the conversation and if they do they do if they don't they don't but at least we're we're trying to bring in different opinions and different uh experiences from around the county and and around the state um I'm I'm going to oine since I haven't gone yet a doge the department of governmental efficiency uh at the federal level is not an actual government Department right so that's why when I first saw this item and as we discussed at our Sunshine meeting um and I mentioned to you I I just to me this seemed antithetical to what they were trying to do up there right because here we would have to under the original plan as I understand it from the December bus uh new business item we'd have to go ahead and staff it with a with an with one of our staff members so that's a soft cost that would be added to it then there's the efficiency uh aspects that were was mentioned by the vice mayor councilman hburg uh council member Fernandez um you know that's another thing but as I mentioned to you at our Sunshine meeting right just as I'm creating a a sort of informal system of of advisors right as I mentioned in my mayor's memorandum uh the first one a I encourage everybody to do that I I just don't see the value uh not only in creating a formal body that's going to uh take away staff time from other matters that they need to be focusing on but also my other concern is that we're going to prolong our budget hearings beyond what we need to I mean I I can tell you now having done this six going on seven years there's not a whole lot of fat in that budget right councilwoman Rono even met with Albert agar AEL Fernandez and and some of the more notorious Cost Cutters that we have in our community and to be honest with you other than Miss colong coming every now again the rest of them often would would after Maryland would go with the budget with them they wouldn't have anything else to add it's a very well-run uh ship of course everyone should consult whoever they feel can add something I just don't know that I want to do it in both in either a formal body or a formal meeting that's is going to again just take away uh staff time because obviously especially when there's a meeting we have to show up Ed has to show up Melissa has to show up uh the list goes on and it just becomes uh a chaotic message I think we're better served in my view um solely by a seeking out the Council of those individuals in inviting them to our offices going line by line with them uh on one day or multiple days with them in our offices and that I think makes us more efficient um as we're going through the process if and then taking the ideas that you got from them right or that we get from them and then bring that to the budget workshops and the budget hearings I mean traditionally we've even had Sunshine meetings to expressly go line by line on the budget I'm not opposed to doing that maybe that would be the proper venue to go ahead and and after we've consulted consed with our with our outside advisers and bring their ideas to the table and bring it in those Sunshine meetings to give staff advice on on what we'd like to see in the budget you know but again at least that's where I'm coming from that's why I won't be able to support the item today but I of course I encourage everyone to seek advice wherever you can and of course bring whatever ideas you might have but uh but I am I am I I am certainly the in terms of Council meetings everything going to try to be the best Doge we can have right trying to cut through as much uh red tape and discussion as possible so we can just continue to move with our business so um with that that uh we've had one round where everybody's gone through on this item is there anyone else wishing to speak point of clarification mayor Mr vice mayor before you just spoke it sounded like uh council member Garcia may have amended his motion so number one I don't think we're in proper posture I think there needed to be a second for the moot for the amendment okay well sure uh I'm happy second um but that can you just repeat what that amendment was so we know what we're voting on yes absolutely listening to my colleagues and their opinions uh as far as an official Advisory Board um I will not be asking for that what I would be asking for is adding a section to our either Sunshine meetings or our our workshops during the budget hearing where we all invite a a businessmen or or or people from you know former government officials that can come in and opine and get a different Pro uh things that have worked for them in the past and and just their ideas so we can absorb those ideas and incorporate them in in our decision-making process uh to me you know it could be as long as half an hour to to an hour uh yes it's a little additional time during our workshops yes but again if we're if we're able to get new ideas or ideas that that have worked in other municipalities and we we we can bring in a ringer someone that you know that that has done this before or has some opinions that have worked for them before in their organ gations be it private or public um I always think it's a good thing so in lie of making it official uh open the sunshine just if my colleagues would be open just to add uh maybe an hour 45 minutes to an hour to our workshops in the upcoming uh uh budget process to be able to invite at least one or two uh people to come in and just uh opine on on the on the budget okay yes so I did hear that um and and again you seconded it correct I did okay so it's in so go ahead so you you go ahead and if you have additional discussion very quickly on on that specific issue that I didn't have a opportunity to comment on my hesitation there is you're already having a sunshine meeting a workshop stat style meeting that is intentionally Laz Fair uh in terms of its structure and its organization um to generate as much conversation as possible um my concern is by creating a specific part in that agenda for these experts who I don't know who they are I don't think we're paying these people right God that would go against everything that that that we're talking about up here um I think that putting that section of the agenda tells the sends the wrong message to our residents in terms of that opinion is more valuable than that opinion and I'm not saying that that's what we're doing but I feel like it could send that message um and that's definitely not the message that we as as a council want because we want more important than any expert frankly is resident is what What the residents feel so uh through the chair that's what concerns me councilman Garcia you may respond thank you um yeah I see I see it differently vice mayor I think the residents would in would actually like the fact that we are reaching out to as many experts as possible because we're the final decision on this matter right uh we're going to make that choice staff is going to pre prevent the present the options we're going to make the final choice I think they'll be happy to hear that we're we want to hear everybody's opinion experts from all walks of life private and public to add to our Collective knowledge to make our decisions more educated so I think the residents would actually uh in the spirit of Doge I mean I totally understand we're not going to create a government entity come on guys I I understand that but this is more the spirit of it right um so that that was my my uh so I I'm willing to work with you guys and make it something that is part of a workshop uh you know half 45 minutes uh just to be open to the fact that we all can invite someone to come in and we can give them some some some uh the budget to look at and see if they have anything if and if nobody wants to come in nobody comes in but the workshop's still going to happen anyway right um and remember we want to encourage more participation in these workshops so I think this might I mean since this this seems to be the buzzword right now might encourage residents to say wait what is that all about let me come in there maybe they learned something maybe they're part of the process remember participation is we're trying to get here uh and more education so that's my the spirit of my item and I would ask my uh my colleagues to to approve it thank you well um and I just want to respond myself it still doesn't change anything for me I mean for starters I'm a little terrified because I've I've heard those words before like this is still your final decision you're good you can do whatever you want because the last time that happened Mr Cruz uh started working against me uh when I ran for mayor um you know as did a variety of other residents as well it didn't seem very genuine in terms of uh you know people that genuinely were just giving an opinion and then you can take it or leave it instead there were reactions uh to that that in some cases got very personal now a I'm not saying it's going to happen here since some of your your intent is to bring in outside officials but there's nothing that stops you from calling a sunshine meeting the way I did with you the way I did with our colleagues on on the issue of the appointment to do that in advance instead of having to prolong existing meetings well into the night again it's better to chew up that information earlier and then each one brings their own the ideas that they like best from whoever they consulted to the table at that point I just that that is where I'm coming from and and of course obviously the board May disagree but I just wanted to to explain that yes I I understood the amendment at the time and you're right that we need to the proper posture but it but the additional EXP and change do not do anything for me um with that are there any other uh colleagues of mine that would like to speak no uh through through the chair yeah Okay C Garcia I'm I'm a little confused uh you know if something ain't broken why fix it I mean is there something broken in the house I personally don't think so uh but obviously you know everyone may have ideas on how they can improve things right and and that's I'm I'm willing to say that that's where this is coming from I just don't think though that in practice it's going to actually make us more efficient or uh actually get us closer to what we're trying to get to in terms of keeping a tight budget and whatnot so um but yeah I I hear what your I hear your point I agree with you but I just wanted to say that I do think he's coming from a good place it's just that in Practical uh terms it's probably not going to work out in my view go ahead and I'm sure that councilman Garcia has a uh a good intention but uh I mean there I'm trying to digest uh all this information but it just it was just my question I mean is there something broken in the house that that that that we need to know I hear you you know are there any other comments I'll keep listening perfect perfect anyone else with that why don't we call the RW on this one too just be safe Madam clerk so the motion for is on the amendment to add that section to the budget Workshop and to all the council members to receive um to bring different um individuals so on that Amendment that's the motion council member hburg yes council member Garcia yes council member Quadra the the amendment the motion I'm sorry madam clerk can you read it one more time for yes the amendment um by council member Garcia is to what a section to the budget workshops or budget hearings and invite it's an amendment first and then would be the main motion so we are in the amendment that in that sence if you if it based on your question right if you believe that it ain't broke don't fix it then you should vote no that I think that's what you're trying to say the answer is no all right where is yes okay council member Sanchez no council member Fernandez no vice mayor Mora no mayor Diez no the motion the amendment to the motion fails then the main motion was um to create an ad hoc an Advisory Board of residents to try to review the budget and the process of procurement on that motion on that um is there any further discussion on the formal body okay with that said U Madam clerk again please call the role council member s no council member Fernandez no council member hburg no council member Garcia yes council member Quadra no a vice mayor morera no mayor Diez no the motion fails all right we are now on item 14 I Mr uh councilman hburg thank you Mr Mayor um so this is pretty straightforward it's a matter of of a town directive to make sure that our committee hearings allow Public Access via Zoom for public comments uh through my agenda briefing with the manager I believed I cleared up how I I see it that it should not cost any additional amount I don't need an IT person I don't need someone looking at the meeting I feel like the liaison for my four years on a board will be perfectly fine with running this it's a matter of in the public comments part of the agenda if anyone's logged on let them speak nobody's logged on mute it and we move on can the chair open up can the committee open up public comments later yeah okay open up on mute nobody's speaking mute them back I don't I don't see the technicality I remember my transition meetings I'm I my I've been told that this does not have a cost in any new Zoom accounts or anything like this this in my opinion should be a zero cost item it makes sense there are committees that run 8:30 at night there's committies around 9:00 in the morning I remember multiple people on the BL when I was on the blasting board wanted to participate but they couldn't make it to town hall at 7 o'clock 7:30 so it seems like a and it should be an easy item I don't I don't believe there should be a cost but if the town manager wants to talk about that uh and that's my item I second second that council member it's it's not intended for Committee Member participation through via Zoom no oh so just public comments just public comments then then there should not be any cost cuz that's a dead period during the committee meeting where we just listen to the public comments and they can transition from managing the meeting to just managing the zoom open it up whoever's on and then afterwards they shut it down and then we move on right I can I can see the issue with making it committee members that's much more complicated this is just public comments that's the only uh thing I asked for any other addition of discussion on this item seeing none all those in favor say I I all oppos no the it have it the item carries congratulations councilman hburg with that we're now on item 14j council member Garcia you are recognized to present the item and um I apologize before you before you start I just want to note for the record the vice mayor just pointed out to me um that yes item 14 where did I have it uh 14h I did not present it because I pulled it as a result of uh learning that the issue there was a resident error in terms of how the res filled out the permit so um we already do what what I was requesting there but that is why I skipped it and so I wanted to put that on the record for all of your benefits council member Garcia thank you mayor the residents of Miami Lakes deserve an optimist park they can be proud of the residents voted not to approve the park uh bond in 2020 but um but they do accept or expect progress on a plan B to improve the park infrastructure to a standard they deserve and expect in Miami Lakes you know I believe we have an opportunity to start the process by focusing on the easy flexible infrastructure the loow hanging fruit um I ask my colleagues to approve and request that the town of Miami Lake staff provide a plan to enhance I've spoken to the to the um to the uh Town manager if we cannot replace the back stops at least find a way of making them presentable they're currently they've been orange for decades because of of rust that accumulates from the sprinkler systems now I I personally think that our signature Park should not have orange back stops so if we can't put new back stops in because it might uh hurt the joint use agreement with uh with the school and and might trigger uh the timeline in improvements with that um can we at least look into making them look presentable and any fence not post any fence that are that are bent because of batting practice against the fence perhaps we can put in those rubber mats make sure they use it and and enforce it when I was a coach you know I I I made sure we didn't hit I tried to make sure we didn't hit against the fence to do that but guys we've had orange back stops for decades I honestly think it's an embarrassment I know we we don't like looking at it if there's a way to paint them or to remove the rust and maintain that at least aesthetically while the the town I know you're looking into Plan B and how we can uh start fixing the park at least start there it's low hanging fruit guys and I think we're all willing to spend a little bit of money because we do have a budget for the Aesthetics of that it is frankly an embarrassment to me that we still have orange back stops to this day because because of the because the rust on the on the back on on the back stops council member Garcia what what's your motion my motion would be to have the staff look into a way that we can either paint uh those those back stops or look into if putting new back stops does not affect the joint use agreement with the Miami dat public schools and we have a budget uh for for Optimus park right now if we can start changing uh the back stops I think we've all agreed we're not going to go for the wheel and and spoke design I think that wheel and spook design is dead and um you know that's not going to happen so I think we can consider doing that it's maintenance it's not uh new construction we're just maintaining the fence by putting in uh new fencing where the old fencing is is is broken or rusted is there a second I'll second for discussion second seconded by council member Fernandez uh just wait one second and then Mr manager uh did you have something that I guess is informative before we start disc because we we can look because there's different ways of doing it we can actually clean it I know that at at my house you know it's different than a back stop stop at a park at my house there's rust a that you buy at Home Depot and you can get the rust uh stains off the off your uh walls from the sprinkler system it's not rust it's rust stains right so the water has rust in it so structurally those uh because it's aluminum right so they're not going to rust but aesthetically it's different right so but there may be other ways for us to be able to accomplish the same thing so what I'd like to do is uh I guess to the council member's uh point is let our staff consider what your objective is and then we'll come back next month and report back to you and tell you these are the things different ways that we can accomplish that and uh just report back so you have an idea of what uh what we recommend I I I appreciate that okay I guess what I would ask is and this is self-reflection on everybody why haven't we considered it in the past I mean I know I've brought this up a couple times and I'll take full responsibility for not putting it in front of an item but I mean just going by a park and seeing you know I understand that uh aesthetically it's something that if it's an easy fix and it's only a coup it may not be an easy fix and that's why it may be there may be a cost attached to it and that's no no no and I agree and I asked my my colleagues to be open to that cost because I think we can all agree that orange back stops cannot be tolerated anymore regardless of the reason because I don't see any other Park in in South Florida that has the issue that we're having either they do what you do right they figure out a way or they replace the fence uh or they put the coating on the fence which is more expensive I understand the coating plastic coating that goes into the fencing because that's the that's the way most Parks go with the black coating and it depends on the sprinkler right because if the sprinkler system relies on it's well water and depends on how deep the well and depends how many how contaminated not contaminated but how many minerals are in the wells in that neighborhood there's a lot of factors that that go into it so let our staff if you don't mind our staff will take a look at and we'll report back next month and give you uh a game plan on what different options for you to consider thank you so just a brief the mayor since he was out mayor I asked the staff to look into how we can remove the rust stains from the existing fence in the back stops at Optimus Park um if we cannot do that to consider since we're not going to most of us agree we're not going to go to the wheel and spoke design to consider uh replacing the back stops because I believe it's maintenance and it won't uh hinder the existing joint use agreement with the with with the uh School Board to look into that and see because I do believe that's that's that's maintenance based and we're not changing anything or or adding anything to the park um so that's where we are right now that's my motion thank you so much and it was seconded by council member Fernandez as as I understand correct yes and this is just basically what we discussed at our Sunshine meeting okay perfect council member fernandz you have the floor thank you mayor um yeah I I would support um I mean there no it's no secret here that I was a big supporter of of the bond and of course for the record I'm not going to ask the residents for a bond but I do see that you know the that Park in particular needs a lot of work and I I I think that a more comprehensive plan is is probably something that I'm going to be moving forward in in in the next coming up upcoming meetings but for now I I will support any uh repair for the back stop anything that we need to to make it look to the standard of Miami Lakes I I'll support that thank you any additional comments yes uh council member Garcia Quadra thank you Mr Mayor um I want to leave clear um that I played basketball in that uh on that uh on that Park and I like sports and and I'm sure are you guys aware how many constituents come from Mother municipalities Miami Gardens opaka all over and they use our Parks wouldn't there ever come a time where we might think of start to not an expert at parks but have we ever thought of when are we going to be I know the park uh belongs to Miami day County uh the school board and but we need to start understanding that there's a lot of people coming to use our parks and they just come and trash it and they just leave so are we going to continue to use certain funds to fix the park and I mean councilman JC are you aware that last time uh residents went out and voted against any types of bonds and I I mean we're clear on that right I mean member Fernandez you're recognized to respond thank you mayor and please remember to always when you are directing your comments at other colleagues to try to always include the phrase through the chair since all comments also between us for civility purposes need to run through the chair of the meeting which is the mayor thank you Mr Mayor go ahead Mr uh to to respond to you I'm absolutely well aware I was there the day that it was voted down but the fact that it that the bond was voted down doesn't mean that we can't keep our parks to the standard of what miam Lakes as as what we expect as residents I I'll just add this the fact and and that there are other residents from outside our town that use our Parks shouldn't shouldn't ignore or or shouldn't supersede the fact that it is beneath the standards of what we expect and whether we're going to cut off our nose a SPID our face just because other residents use it outside of our town we're going to have parks that you know that that aren't to our standards I think that we can all agree that the park needs to be upgraded but the bond is not going to come before this at least not for me so I'll leave it there anyone else wish Mr Mayor briefly um I I agree with councilman Fernandez and I agree with councilman Garcia's item the park C needs upkeep uh I hope to see something come up there's funds there to make some substantial upkeep uh not a bond I don't believe there's any political will to put that in front of Voters again so I I I don't believe you have that issue but uh the park needs to be maintained to a standard and and any lot lots of public buildings are used by other residents maybe there's a conversation about the fees we charge of these parks for residents and non-residents right that's that's an open conversation that we should have in the future but uh simple things like this need to be taken care of and I appreciate councilman Garcia bringing it up man Mr vice mayor uh Mr manager uh you expressed to me during my agenda briefing that there will be some workshops in the next two to three months uh with regard specifically to spending uh with regard to how to go about spending the one to$ one and A5 million dollar that we have in the capital account for Optimus Park do it correct we have somewhere between a million to 1 and a half million in the capital account for the park what we are planning to do is come before you in a workshop environment put some ideas some identify what we believe are some of the the the things that need most attention put them before you and uh let you tell us what your priorities are about how to invest that money in the Park thank you once we get that uh direction from this Council then we need to go and have a conversation with the uh school board about the joint use agreement and so forth because they're our partner in this park right in this property so we need to have a conversation with them about how to make this investment and uh and go from there thank you Mr but we want to get your priorities first and we want to put some ideas before you in a workshop environment thank you Mr manager in that situation I'd like to just propose a friendly Amendment um that when this Workshop comes up that the proposal you just suggested be one of the proposals uh suggested or brought up by the town staff at those workshops through the chair council member Garcia vice mayor absolutely I I will bring up the um the replacing the back stop with newer back stops however what I'm referring to right now is basic maintenance right the basic M maintenance of the fencing uh with the with the rust uh with the color color of rust because of the sprinklers that's basic maintenance that you need to do in every Park so um I believe that falls under that category and that's something we need to do no matter what right so um that's why I'm and and and I'll bring those items up absolutely because we do need new lighting and we do definitely need new back stops but um the basic maintenance I don't think and again uh paralysis through analysis right yes we can wait and wait and wait but this basic maintenance I think needs to be done immediately and needs to continue to be done and as soon as they start turning orange again we need to whatever we decided to do make sure because just I mean it could be SE it's the it's the park that we everybody passes by six 7th Avenue sees that Park the way it is so you know I know it's uh it's a difficult task but uh it's a task that all all towns have to uh our main task is to maintain our our our infrastructure right that's what we're brought up here for so I honestly uh I'm a little frustrated because it's taken so long to get to this place and again I'm going to take full responsibility because I haven't brought this up uh earlier so um I apologize to the residents for not bringing it up earlier I should have done it earlier but I think there's a quick fix here slow hanging fruit so that's my my thinking on and why I I let's just see if we can get the rust off that that fence so thank you thank you council member Garcia a so just to be clear a uh an amendment was proposed on the on the floor um a and can you restate what it was and just to give everybody a chance to decide if they want to Second it or not sure thing the proposed friendly amendment is as far as the replacement of the back stops uh that rather than it be something that we try to address right now or as a standalone issue that it could be one of the uh proposals that's raised by our town staff when the council has uh workshops specifically relating to the expenditure of the funds in the mlop capital account so in essence a strike all Amendment not to paint them right now uh but to have a comprehensive discussion in the future um that's what you're proposing it wasn't a strike all because he has a separate item with regard to maintenance with regard to I guess power washing or or or painting which is maintenance I am I mine relates to uh mine relates to replacement okay is there a second I'll I'll second council member herberg seconds is there any discussion on the amendment all right seeing none all those in favor say I I oppos no the eyes have it the mo the main motion has been amended um is there any uh discussion fur any further discussion on the main motion okay seeing none all those in favor do so by saying I I I all oppos no okay congratulations council member Garcia mayor before we leave this topic I'd like to get a vote of this Council to approve a having a workshop within the next two to three months as soon as uh our staff is ready to present these items to you so that we don't have to come back to you and ask for approval again we'll just schedule it around you know G Gina and Alexis will schedule it around your uh your uh your schedules thank you move it second moved by council member Garcia seconded by councilman herburger is there any discussion seeing none all those in favor say I iose no the item passes uh anything else Mr manager before I move on no sir okay so uh now back to councilman herberg item 14k proposal to reinstate commit attendance rules thank you Mr Mayor um and I I was informed uh through the clerk that VI the vice mayor wanted to co-sponsor this and then um speaking with the town manager uh be after I submitted this uh proposal new business item the quarterly chair meeting was scheduled so I think it makes sense to honestly maybe we can discuss this but hold off on the item uh I it makes sense to bring the item to the chairs to the courter chair meeting get their input on this attendance because at least on my proposal I haven't been able to see the rules that uh that vice mayor Mora proposed but in my in my item it gives the chair uh discretion on voting I think the chair should have some input on that so that's how I see it it's just a matter of discussing it and I don't know if the vice mayor wants to add anything that is a motion is there a second a second for discussion seconded by the vice mayor Mr vice mayor you have the floor uh so just very briefly uh each of you on the Das did receive a a physical print out of the committee rules which has my proposed uh amendments um like council member hburg I was working on this issue I did get wind of the fact that there would be a committee chair meeting and chose or elected not to bring uh this item now in the January meeting because I figured let me talk to the committee chairs first see if they're okay with this and once they uh you know give me some sort of consensus I would bring it in February um nonetheless once I saw council member hburg put this item on on the agenda I immediately requested to to co-sponsor it because I agree with what he's attempting to do uh we have we go at it in similar ways um it is about accountability at the end of the day um our volunteer committee members swore an oath and they make a commitment to be present um and we need to expect them to be present and more importantly the lack of attendance is causing substantial issues within numerous committees a as it relates to their ability to obtain a quorum to conduct business um my version uh which what it does is I feel like uh the prior rule the three and you're out uh rule may have been a little too rigid the current rule is way too soft uh I believe council member herzberg's uh version um essentially reverts to the old uh three strikes you're out rule with the twist of um the uh of getting the the chair involved mine tries to be a goldilock somewhere in the middle um and it also tries to provide a little bit of clarity as to what is unexcused versus an unexcused uh uh and it also gives power not just to the chair but also to the committee itself um and as well as some other changes what I would propose at this stage I would actually move to table this item to the February regular council meeting um where we can have an opportunity to meet with the committee chairs uh you can all have an opportunity to see what I'm proposing uh and then through the staff um if necessary through a sunshine meeting we'll get together and come up with a cohesive version of this to bring back in February and Mr Mayor if I if I may one other thing speaking with the deputy Town attorney I think it's time we we codify the rules they change too often let's let's make it harder to change it's just let's agree on the rules and those are the rules and let's move on any other discussion on the items through the chair C Garcia I know that the rules have changed uh we're trying to first thing we want partip patient we want Quorum right without Quorum nothing can happen right um I believe there is a fine line and a middle ground in making sure we're holding them accountable and saying you you can only miss three three or four whatever we the chairs decide however I always thought it was it was a bad idea to get rid of the option for for Zoom not as 100% attending Zoom but to allow for one at least minimum two or maximum two Zoom meetings uh available to you if you your kid is sick if you're sick if something happens that you can't make it um we allow at least you know minimum maximum two Zoom meetings allowed that way you'll at least hit Quorum because without Quorum I mean your whole month is shot right so I I think not leveraging the technology that's available to all of us as a you know it's so easy to use and honestly um our leaon know how to use zoom they they understand Zoom they know how to work it um I don't think it's an issue but at least requesting and providing this as an option to the to the chairs hey if we had two Zooms in maximum would that help at least uh with Quorum presenting it to them and see I would be open to deferring this if we had that ability before I take it back to the prime sponsor uh to address that um I know that council member Fernandez has been waiting to speak so let me go to him really quick and then we can come back point of parliamentary procedure there was a motion laid at the table uh that I believe sound more like like you were suggesting and they said that that's what I heard so you were you were moving I am moving to table I I will second that motion to table okay so with that uh does anybody have any discussion on the motion to table okay seeing none uh uh let's vote uh a Madam clerk please call the role so motion to table this item council member Quadra no council member Garcia yes council member hburg yes council member Fernandez yes council member Sanchez yes vice mayor Mora yes mayor Diez yes the motion passes oh okay so we uh with that the mo the item is tabled and we are now on item number 15 mayor and council member report rep beginning with councilman hburg on blasting thank you Mr Mayor and as discussed in December 10th meeting uh as you granted me you know the power to delegate and and speak to other municipalities elected officials regarding blasting just give you the update where we're at um I've reached out to every elected official in Dural halia Gardens hiia myar Florida city and Homestead via email and mail um working getting responses honestly not many and hopefully the the snail we'll get more of a response uh a commissioner from myar did respond and we're trying to work on a meeting I had a an hour and a half long meeting with representative David barrero primarily about blasting uh he wanted to get informed on the issue I think he's well informed now and and he said he would come back to me uh I do know that representative fabricio's bill is still in drafting I believe there is some drafting that was some issues not on his side on on the staff's side and that hasn't been filed made public yet but it's in the works um and that's where I'm at right now I'm reaching out and continuing to push I do ask M Mr Mayor for your assistance in getting Senator Garcia involved the most important thing we can do from his side is get another resolution in front of the county to support representative fao's legislation once we have the bill uh so that County Lobby assets will be used that's important that we do that as soon as possible obviously we need the bill first and I I would ask that you do that once I have once we have the bill out there uh because that involves allowing us to having a bigger lobbying team in Tallassee last year we did it too late honestly um I am reaching out to the mayor's office as well I'm working on sending up meetings of her uh and mo lastly I know it's an agenda item from the town manager is our own efforts uh I hope the blasting Advisory Board will be going up fairly soon uh and it's we need to discuss our efforts and when we want to travel to tallas I believe day days came a that's not really I don't see that as the best day to talk you know set up Lobby meetings about blasting if that's something we need to do separately um but that's where we're at right now but once the legislative session gets going uh we need to go up there whether it's two of us three of us me and the town attorney who knows right but we we need to go up there and push on all levels and I'm going to continue to push on other municipalities especially myar and I encourage uh my colleagues to reach out to uh individuals they know and those especially the municipalities I said D haia hia Gardens Homestead fora City to to push them on on working together on the issue thank you for the report councilman hburg um I will speak to commissioner Garcia um to work on a resolution a I I believe he's stuck in DC right now which is ultimately why I ended up not being able to go to the inauguration I just uh needed to make sure I was here you know first full meeting as mayor so um so I ended up canceling my plans to go up especially since a lot of the events were now going to be indoors and and you know it was going to be uh freezing so with that I'll speak to him and and I'll have uh Gina provide an update or Alexis provide an update once uh once I have one H with that yeah bless you uh with that we're now on 15 SE the Police contract report by council member Garcia thank you um mayor so I reached out to to the town manager and uh I think it's an opportunity it's less of a report and more of a request uh I know the the town manager trying to get a meeting with the new sheriff um but of course she's it's crazy right first 100 days right um but I I'd like to ask him and and US participate as well you yourself mayor and uh finding out you know what we can do is there anything she's amable to open to to uh make the jobs of our police officers easier right uh any resources that we can leverage now in the sheriff format as opposed to the director format of the police of of of that department um just establish a relationship early right uh and see if there's anything any any savings that could be found or any additional resources we can leverage uh from from the sheriff and and the system she's putting in place I know we're still we have the contract set for what is it four how many years did we extend it five five years um you know are they open to anything we can do uh any line items in that that that could perhaps save us money uh because I know the cost went up significantly from one year to the next uh when it comes to cost so uh there's an opportunity here I think we should take it so um I I I would ask the town manager to to lead that and and we can participate as well right as individual as as a councel support what she's doing and 100% support what she's doing and see what we can do to help support our officers even more than we do already so that's the our deputies that's right sorry our deputies that's right uh so that's that's basically it that's my the the spirit of my item so a just be clear then you're you're requesting just that we go go as a group to meet well for the yeah for the manager suggested he's going to have an individual meeting but also invite her here and have a uh have a meeting with her with all of us and and of course of of course uh our police officers and our major our deputies um to establish that relationship and to uh and to um again show our support and and see what we you know what other things that that that sheriff the new sheriff department can do do for the town and and our residents and our deputies I yeah I think that's fine they our major has a personal relationship with her my friend Ruben who you met and used to be part of the Miami day Police Department uh knows her personally um and they they see each other often so um definitely agree that I'll be reaching out and trying to establish a relationship with her but again we we will absolutely uh bring her here so we can discuss these issues but acknowledging that we have some time before we actually you have to the rubber hits the road in terms of having to make an actual Amendment to the agreement I don't I and I don't want to overwhelm her either because I think um something that people don't see internally is it's more than just a cosmetic change right um so there there's a couple other uh things I would rather let her settle into first um organizationally before we bombard her with all sorts of requests but I'm more than happy to work with the with the manager to get that set up sometime in the near future but I just you know don't want you to to tell you I'm going to work on getting that meeting with him next month and you hit the nail on the head I'm sure she's reaching out uh to you know to she has a lot of ideas on restructuring and things like that and uh with our experience as a contract City we can definitely give give you already have a relationship but we can give her our thoughts on what you know what uh different areas she if things stay the same or things have to change and we can give our opinion and op Pine on that and be part of the process right in this this process of restructuring that she's going through love to be part of the process or at least give our opinion while it's being being built than to you know Pine on it after the fact uh I'm talking though not about contract cities there are other organizational matters that she has to deal with no 100% yeah I get it I get it yeah she's first first under days she's it's a it's you know 60 years we haven't had Sheriff Department 100% understand just love to be part of that process again squeaky wheel gets the grease kind of thing so that's basically it um with that thank you Council council member Garcia Mr manager go ahead and begin our reports as we slowly start to bring this plane foro Polie at a Rel relatively decent time good evening mayor Town Council manager um your town Commander Jose Gonzalez with the uh police report uh basically I'm just going to round out last year's U numbers um just do the not just December but it just be the whole year round that um finishing up I know we really didn't we had a short December meeting but the Grinch Busters that we had for the holidays was very successful we had no issues again it was really um very successful we had some good feedback on that I saw our officers out there with the lights on in the shopping centers uh it was mostly Thursdays Fridays Saturdays and Sundays and um we didn't have any crimes or any issues or anybody being victimized during those days and times so that was very good um we also did the Jingle Ball run that was a good uh we helped staff that and um that was very well um when it comes down to the crime um it's uh we had a total of a 13% reduction overall um homicides obviously we had a 100% reduction because we had that one year where had that murder suicide with the family so thank God nobody we didn't have that anything this issue so we' had no homicides in the town for 24 um the robberies are down 50% as far as regular and domestics are down 7 75% um Auto thefts we would had a reduction of 13% total for the year um Auto the auto burglaries we had a 35% reduction and I just wanted to add that the uh the uh residential burglaries are at all alltime lows about 10 years as far as went back in stats 10 years went back we only had eight residential burglaries in the whole town last year so that's uh that's good and we have again the vehicle burglary details the officers and the residential and we only had five commercial burglaries in the whole town last year so um those are single digits that we haven't had in as long as I looked at the data so that's good information um overall everything's been good we' contined with the high visibility patrols the minimum Staffing and the traffic enforcement that we continue to do we do we do it daily we do have a Traffic Unit but then we do the enforcement traffic where we get five six officers to work at high visibility do pulling like everybody over on areas where we have complaints and I I send you guys those reports an email um and with that I open up for questions Council any questions for the major quick question through the chair council member Garcia then vice mayor Mor Commander I've noticed I've noticed lately and I've never seen this before um kids on quads and on um dirt bikes uh around the main Main Street area I saw like am okay no no this was before that this was before that and uh uh know they took off and I and is is is yours do you pursue that I mean it's I know the county doesn't pursue no what I mean does it's not happening but if it does start happening are there any deter that uh yeah what what they do is our officers see it obviously they'll they'll try to conduct a traffic stop and 98% of the time they won't stop but they'll just leave the area because they're obviously they've already uh attracted the attention of the police and they know there there might be a police engagement to them so they're just gonna leave that's what we normally do we just uh we'll try to conduct a vehicle stop because they're not supposed to be in the road um but they don't normally don't stop but they'll leave because now the police are here and they don't want any trouble yeah okay I appreciate that I'll just if I see it again I'll call the police and if officers patrolling they see it they're definitely going to address it um I don't see it that much but they come and go from time to time for some reason they're riding what I've seen before is they just ride through the town going to halia or they have that you know the area by the 170th Street Bridge St they go back there where they uh they have those sand dunes so they use the town as a cut through either from opaka or from AIA but they're normally don't loiter here they're just cutting through from point A to point B yeah and before we move to the vice mayor uh yes whatever you do did not tell former vice mayor coyaso about it um since uh I don't know if you remember remember major uh his his um his efforts to get that under control when a prior group of teenagers were trying to do that within the town and pop wheelies and whatnot so he gets too excited so um don't tell him and with that Mr vice mayor then councilman herberg uh and anybody over here want to ask the major any questions okay we and then we'll wrap up and move to the next report after that major my statement is more of a comment than a question um just correct me if I'm wrong here if I'm reading this correct homicide is down four from prior year to date robbery is down by six as opposed to Prior year to date larsy is equal auto theft is down by 13 as opposed to Prior year to date burglary commercial burglary is down by four as opposed to Prior year to date residential burglary is down by one as opposed to Prior year to date agravated assaults are down by one and aggravated battery are down by two is that all right correct then I just think you guys deserve a round of applause I think that you guys have done a tremendous job you officer Amador the entire team you deserve to be commended I hope that the sheriff recognizes your efforts uh and on behalf of a thankful town thank you for everything you guys do for us thank you appreciate it thank you Mr Mayor uh in just two one one question one comment first a comment these statistics are phenomenal right uh and this is why I want the residents to see these great statistics but people because I'm telling you the residents and I'm sure we all heard it the I never see the police driving down there I never because you don't see them because of these statistics because you're doing such a good job patrolling and keeping crime down the police aren't driving around with their lights and Sirens all the time because honestly the crime is low um and just formality with the change to the Sheriff's Office our our off is is our how is how is our the Miami Lakes police Police Department Miami Lakes sheriff's deputies Department how should we be well we're the Miami Sheriff's Office we we contracted and we are called the Miami Lakes police section okay of the Mi dat date Sheriff's Office okay so it's still for us the police department but individually you guys will be deputies now correct yes forly yes yeah instead of the it's just the name change no I know it's just a name CH orig always deputies in a way cuz our badges even say deputy sheriff we just like a hybrid um because we perform the sheriff's office we're the county and all the counties are Sheriff's Office so we perform the the you know the only thing we don't that's kind of different the jails because normally all the all the sheriffs have the jails and we don't but we perform you know all evictions or all Sheriff's jobs uh extraditions is shice Sheriff's jobs and the courts it's all Sheriff so we we were already in charge of all that stuff just just a name change no right right got it everything else is businesses as usual perfect thank you major thank you good evening Mr director of Public Works you can you're free to make your Josh Square joke again if you'd like uh show everybody what a nerd you are I'm I'm past that I got out of my system good evening major um mayor and Council Omar Santos po Works director for the town as usual I'll start highlighting several projects from my infrastructure report I have two other items I'm going to report on uh some past business new business items if at any point you have any question please stop me or anything I did not mention uh you want clarification please uh ask me I'll start with a roadway project so we have the 154 turn lane project that is Set uh to proceed with construction starting February 3rd so sometime during February we'll see uh the contractor break ground in that area some of the work will take place at night some during the day depending on the on the need um especially sometimes for material deliveries they have to do uh some work at during the day the Northwest 59th Avenue as most of you are aware we are the design revision proposal was approved last year towards the end of last year the consultant is working on that and we're currently assisting as far as granting having mad Grant access to the facility for geot geotechnical services and Survey services to proceed with the design we have the 146 or the green green 2.0 project that is already on the way in construction 146 Street between 87 and 89 it's going to be a a brand new bike facility down the the middle of that road so if you drive through the are area you'll see the construction ongoing Fairway Drive we have we made it last year up to 60% which of design which was submitted to do during the design review additional need for scope that wasn't originally on the original uh proposal was identified uh because of this we're going to need to process a change order to this work order of approximately $57,000 related to tree related items or Arbor uh mainly for a landscape architect to add some design features that are going to be currently being required by fdod for tree protection so we widening very close to the trees um so we plan to bring that in the February council meeting for for approval uh it is going to be funded out of currently project contingency however due to the time sensitivity we will we would need to resume design prior to the the approval in February to keep the the design on on track so just making your way and then February I'll bring that that item Canal bank phase three uh construction is completed we're currently we already complete a substantial inspection so the contractor is currently working uh completing the punch list items which they have 30 days to complete so I think towards the end of the month for mid-February is when that that date is set for them to to have completed any punchless items and we officially close out that project drainage projects I'm going to just brief Briefly summarize so we have seven drainage projects in construction that were recently awarded towards the end of last year so it's a lot of a lot going on out there especially I think if you're in the Royal Oaks area you'll see you'll see a lot of us right now and then we have an A coming in that we hope to bring in in February for construction award and that that will be in West Lakes um see then we also have maintenance activities where we are so far I do want want to highlight in sidewalk uh we do have a lot more that's currently active about to be finished uh this month we just don't have those those numbers yet so we don't have them in the in the report boat we we have quite a few big work orders for sidewalk repairs that are ongoing now I'll briefly discuss the two uh new business items responses so during the June 24 council meeting then council member dieas uh requested requested the the through the town manager for staff to look into the removal of the barri metal barriers that were installed along 79th Avenue these were due to to meet requirements for fall protection that existed or drop offs that existed along those sidewalks so we evaluated we went did some a few site visits and evaluated what would be the most cost effective no knowing using the current contract that we have and what I present in front of you at the table is each location um each intersection has two locations where we have those barriers and what we're looking at as as you know opinion prob probable cost to remove the barriers and make that area safe for pedestrians to remove that that drop off so don't know if uh any discussion or or action but that that's what that would that would entail there's eight locations there is yeah eight locations the just want to highlight the last two which are 154 we're recommending to leave as is just because the type of Road it is and it is protecting a flume which is basically a hole under the sidewalk so for that for that to be removed we would pretty much have to reconstruct the drainage there to to eliminate that drop off so it'll be more than the 1,900 of the of the other locations so it'll be a little over $155,000 is my math correct for for the ones we have there yeah and that that's approximate as as we get we if we break ground and we find room for improvement we'll go ahead and and take advantage of that so we'll we'll put it on your list when the carry forward comes back in a couple months as one of the laundry list items for you to consider we're going to have some things that we're going to recommend and then we'll also have some items for your consideration yeah like we do all the time um so that that's fine okay okay yeah and the last the last item and I'll be done speaking would be the portable speed cameras that also uh moror mayor Diez um requested during the October 29th council meeting basically you wanted a way for us to monitor traffic Behavior speed and Flow within certain areas that residents have complained about speeding uh I think we had a brief discussions that I me I mentioned this so the two devices that we currently use for our traffic studies related to the speed H hump request are capable of being deployed to these locations and Counting traffic per Direction and the speed so with that data we could produce several reports one of them being uh police enforcement report that we can share with police in the past there been some areas that we have done that already so our recommendation from this is to use those continue using those devices and as we do do more of our our speed hump studies if we see areas that should be reported to police we'll share that with the police department and then as we wind down on the number of speed H hump requests those devices will get uh deployed to areas us that we have complaints or we have we want to review for speeding and work along with our Police Department to make recommendation on those locations as well thank you director Santos are there any questions for the director before we move on to the next report please bear in mind that we do have a few so please uh make your questions quick uh councilman uh Quadra Garcia through the chair I just wanted to um congratulate uh the manager and you Mr uh Santos for the uh for the quick respond on that uh curve side uh the uh the border the Border over there yeah the St C by Publix no no no the border that we did by the oh 79th Avenue excellent job yeah excellent job thank you Mr Mayor Mr vice mayor uh very briefly on maintenance activities uh these numbers are what's the time period so 182 square yards of replacement completed 83 lights yeah so this is everything that was reported uh from October to December October 24 and this is completed December you said yeah 24 okay and then lastly um you mentioned uh daytime work for the paletto expressway turn Lanes I would like to ask please work with our Communications Department get thing out on social media share it with us so that we can share it that's going to be a nightmare uh they're only going to do daytime work when they don't have to close down a lane okay so they're right om am I saying that correct that's that's why we're working with the contractor to limit or eliminate any Mainline closures during the day if there if there is a need for that that's something as the vice mayor is asking and something we definitely and we do pleas advertise that through our social media and we work very closely with cl team to to get that out that's it for me that's the last thing you want that's a yeah excellent okay seeing nothing right now um thank you director Santos with that director Bachelor jeremi unless this is yeah this is me just real quick just to put on your radar the part three we you know it's been sitting dorm for over a decade we are now starting to have some conversations with the grams and some of the other partners just to see what we can do with that property about maybe resurrecting the uh development of that property to what the council uh had originally intended that's it just to put it on your radar also Mr bad now badon Arbor management jeremi like the rapper good evening mayor and councel uh Jeremy Bown director of Parks and Recreation uh so the report you have in front of you is from the item uh from August 24th uh in which uh at the time vice mayor Tony Fernandez went ahead and uh actioned us to go ahead and look at the current state of our operations for Arbor management mainly on the client side assisting residents how can we work through the workflow and try to synchronize maybe some uh uh technology to assist in that entire facet um so through this um we went ahead and took look at all the items that go into our operations looking at how historically we re we actually took the first inventory of all Town trees throughout the town in 2014 uh an inventory that is now 10 years going on 11 years that's outdated uh us utilizing at the time Arbor Pro which held our inventory which is also a system that is no longer um supported it would need an actual patch and or subscribing to their new version um so taking that into consideration we began our res resarch by seeing how the process was currently being done um and through that we were able to look at some of the workflow and identify opportunities for streamline the operation uh big thank you to Hermon uh and his office of uh Innovation we also tasked him to help us with this and look at how we can synchronize maybe not just Arbor but this may be something longterm for all of our assets to look at and how we can put a CRM together for all of it so we have started that process um right now we're still in the CRM exploration portion um because we're trying to see how we can uh make this process be utilized also for potentially Public Works potentially for other departments um utilizing work order generation utilizing GIS integration um and so forth um the other item that we did is to try and kind of put the Band-Aid over the issue immediately was look at look at look at the workflow operations that we currently internally operate so we looked at how we were maintaining some of our work orders how we were maintaining a lot of the res communication um platforms we get a lot of calls through residents directly we'll get emails we'll get C click fix we'll receive a good amount from uh the council directly through the manager's office so we looked at ways to kind of put this all in one location um staff did a great job and actually putting together an internal workbook um and optimizing it to kind of take all this into consideration streamline it into one document that if we have turnover in certain uh with certain positions within the Department this document can survive that and keep all the information where's the status of Resident complaint through the mayor's office or resident complaint it also ties iny click fix um so that is some of the updates on the CRM report we do have um some more companies to look into on the CRM and the client Resource Management side um but right now some of the next steps are we're waiting to get some information from the county through lar which would actually help us with some of the inventory uh and get updates on our tree inventory the other uh means is to potentially fund a new updated tree inventory um as well as uh we're looking like I mentioned the looking at a few other providers and then finalizing our workflow um document so we're still still in the process of updating uh the ways we can however I will tell you that bringing in and creating that internal workflow document has helped in keeping all of our items kind of streamlined and centralized um with that any questions through the chair councilman Garcia great job I mean that's looking at efficiencies you found you already found some areas where you can improve let me ask you how is is Miami Lakes connect still something that you're using or something that you're taking the data from or can be uh exported information on I want to say that U Miami Lakes connect is essentially going now through Claris Sal's office and it's coming right back to us C click fix is probably the other predominant uh uh app that is being used and that's probably where we get the majority if not a call it would be C click fix all but that's not that's not client facing or or or resident facing right yes the resident reaches out directly then depending on the classification of the item it'll go directly to that Department's uh representative so in this case tree Arbor it'll actually go to JP myself and the arbor coordinator Aaron okay but but a but a staff member is putting is is is dispositioning it as Arbor as tree as that when they call no no the uh the the resident is able to select the different genre okay so then the app is not no longer being used the I would have to confirm if that is what I believe it is I think the miam Lakes connect it is it is C click fix okay so just different verbiage all right so so that's your yeah absolutely okay because I know that a lot of residents when I explained it to them that they didn't even know wow I can open up a ticket and they could follow up that ticket and uh is there anything we can do to improve the functionality of that is a portion of of what we looked at we actually reached out to C click fix and if there was ways that we can implement the arbor side into it um I believe they had some limited uh capabilities on on kind of addressing that issue um but on our side we did a little cleaning house of C click fix make sure it's going to the right people and so forth so yeah scalability is key guys because again as you know there has has to be that scalability or at least to to to be able to export that raw data and import it into the whatever other system we're using um so keep I know you you're always thinking about that so I appreciate it thank you any other comments councilman hburg thank you Mr Mayor so I I just want to be clear right now resident says I actually have a pending work order in my house uh resident says I something's wrong with my tree I want to speak to the town what's the best way to do do it in your opinion what should we be telling residents to do going in the app make the request direct contact if they are app friendly if they are technology uh Savvy then yes 100% that is something that is kept they're in the loop uh there's actually data points that we must maintain as SLA making sure that we're responding within an adequate time that's probably the cleanest way of doing it if not also just reach out to the department and we'll make sure it gets on the same C click fix eventually makes it to the same workbook that if you call us it'll make it to the same workbook for inspections got it but the most for way for person comfortable with the iPhone cck got it perfect thank you that's all thank you okay see nobody else wanted to make a comment you may proceed to your next report sir and then the next item here is the Royal Palm removal and maintenance report um so this uh report aims to address the item presented on in the October regular council meeting um essentially looking at Northwest 166 that is uh predominantly Royal uh Cuban Royal Palms down the entire uh Street essentially this was put in by the developers at the time um there were some concerns on the palm safety Palm fr's falling and so forth um so one of the items was to look at the removal and replacement of immediately 166 um Terrace and then as well taking a look at the entire Sevilla State's uh Community um so what you have before you is two different sets of pricing one is for that removal and replace ment to go ahead and replace the existing Cuban Royals that are that are still existing um and then the second item was actually at the time proferred by uh Council Morano which what they do in Royal pal Estates um no pun intended there but uh they essentially have a maintenance program in which they strap up and tie the actual canopy of these Palm FRS so in the case that one does become loose the Palm frong dies dries out it still stays a part of there and until the next removal essentially it is safely held there um as you can see that is a biannual service that is typically done and that is the second option that is also there um and that is pretty much Adam are there if there's any questions through the through the chair council member Fernandes it's not a question I I just want to make a comment that I actually have friends and and um colleagues that live on that 166 Terrace and they reached out to me before I even became officially a council member and they wanted me to address those palm trees so I know that they had you said it it not only the fact that the Palm frons could fall on the cars or vehicles but they were worried about even falling on on a pedestrian so yeah I'm I'm all for removing those those palm trees and replacing them right tree right sale right tree right sale Jeremy one quick question when you say by annual you mean every two years twice semiannual yeah semiannual okay Mr vice mayor brief question um what's the proper procedure here in terms of selecting removal and replacement versus do we need a motion we got no money yeah so do it right now we'll put this on the laundry list of things for you guys to consider with the carry forward I'm tired of not having money um okay next um Town manager yeah the next thing is just a perfunctory thing the cultural Affairs committee wants to transfer $1,000 within their budget from one line from one event to another and we need uh motion and uh for approval so moved is there a second second moved by the vice mayor seconded by councilman Fernandez all those in favor say I oppos no the eyes have it the motion carries and uh the item is approved uh with that Mr Peterman please to our last item yep the last item for me is the uh during the normal budget process we did not uh have the ability to allocate funds for the council to for travel so what I'm recommending especially now that council member uh Sanchez has been approved that we transfer $15,000 from the uh uh clerk's office budget for the line that's special election transferred to the council line for travel uh to be able to this should be enough for each of the council members to have two trips one during committee weeks and one during uh the actual session and then that'll be up to each of you to decide when you go whether you all go together you go inde independently whatever you guys decide but the money will be there for you whatever you guys decide you're not C uh counting Day dates that could be the one that you select I'm just messing with you okay U moved by the vice mayor is there a second I'll second seconded by councilman hburg any discussion same none all those in favor say I I oppose no the eyes have it the motion carries and uh we are now on the attorney's report item 17 very briefly um I touched on it briefly uh before the blasting committee I met with the blasting committee uh I thought it was a very informative meeting we're looking at all options um I I don't want to disclose too much in in public right now but we are looking at all options uh to do what we can about the law the the blasting laws that stands and I'm going to leave it at that second of all uh We've Come to learn that some people are penetrating we spent millions of dollars in grant money for the canal walls and we have come to learn that some people are penetrating those walls uh with some sort of PVC line or something like that they will be getting irrigation lines they will be getting demand notices and demand letters uh you can expect some residents to be calling you on that um you know somebody's got to pay for that it's a warranty issue they shouldn't be doing it I believe at least one resident was told not to do it and did it anyway chased away our people blah blah blah uh you'll be you'll be hearing from them soon enough because we're sending out uh we're sending out cor let's just call it correspondence in that regard okay anything else that's mayor before we adjourn we have something important to tell you happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear Happy Birthday to you thank you thank you how many how many how many happy birthdays is this going to get it's a month long celebration of Josh you know and and more than that also I do want to also say happy birthday to our town clerk who's also a January baby happy birthday so clerk Alex to the mayor and that we have a person a a moment of personal privilege that council member fernandz would like to take just just real quick happy birthday first of all and and to the clerk as well but um just remember everybody please uh the Food and Wine Festival is February 1st it's an awesome event it's for a great cause of foundation I encourage everybody to go that's it thank you I don't think we're all going to be able to eat from there you guys are allowed to eat from there but so that we can let the public go uh the meeting is now a jaring at 11:23