Church of Miami and Madame Clerk. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Alex Deumeir here. Mayor I mean Vice Mayor Timothy here. Councilman Burns here. Councilwoman Esmean present. Councilman Pierre French Charles present. Mayor you have a quorum
to proceed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And now we are going to have Major Major Paul with the pledge. All stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and
to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. For everyone that's here, you can please bow your heads with me or close your eyes.
Heavenly Father, we come before you and we ask that you bless this evening and the leaders as you said in Micah 6:8, "What do you require of us? But to do
justly, heavenly Father, to love mercy and to walk humbly before you." Lord God, we ask that you cover our leadership from the mayor to the vice mayor, from the council woman, from the
councilman, from the madam clerk, from the city manager to the city attorney, our law enforcement, Lord God, we ask that every support staff that is working behind the scenes, that you cover them in everything that they do, that they
may do it justly in service to the people of this city. Lord God, we ask everlasting Father that they also love mercy to serve the least of these, those that are the most vulnerable, those that need the help. Let them be the hands.
Let them be the good Samaritan that sees them and service them, Lord God, everlasting Father. And finally, you ask that we walk humbly before you. to walk humbly before you. Lord, we need to know who you are as we look at your
omnipotence, knowing that you are the one that has all the power in the heaven and the earth. And we know that you're omnisient. You are the all knowing God. And finally, we know that you are omnipresent. No matter where we are, as
David said, if I am in the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the hills, you are there, Lord God, the forever present one. Allow your presence to be forever present in our conscience, in our
actions in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, pastor. Okay. Thank you so very very much. We are going to madame manager. Any addition, deletion, amendment or deferral to the
agenda? Good evening, mayor. Yes, tab B and tab G are being pulled from consent for discussion and tab I is being removed from the agenda by the applicant. Got it. Okay. I You got it, Madam Clerk. And I think I think I'm
trying to catch up myself. And mayor. Yes, sir. Can I be a co-sponsor? Mhm. Tab B. Sure. You got a a tab B co-sponsor? Tab D. D O T. Um B as in boy. Yeah, we
got that. And you say D as in David. D as in David as well. Yeah. I will also co-sponsor those items. Um B and D. Thank you. B and D. Awesome. And then there was another one, Mr. Mayor.
Yes, sir. Also on B and D. BND also for Councilman Burns and then we are good to go. Mr. Attorney, are we set? Yes, mayor. The agenda set. You may proceed.
I got you. Okay. So, um right be we going to take a little bit out of order. Um there there are some members who we do have to um go. So what I'm going to do the city e so we'll do city event
then we'll quickly do consent so we could do yeah I'm trying to I'm trying to do it where we trying to cuz the I'm trying to figure out how do we do this? So do we do the presentation and then would
that help um do the council the consent? Yeah, that's what I wanted to do if I could do that. Would that be okay, Mr. Attorney, if we do that and then we'll we'll go back into city announcement and all this and all that. So, we'll do the cons. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thank
you. So, madame clerk, we'll do consent now and then after consent, we'll do special presentation, city announcement, then we'll go back into order if that makes sense. Consent agenda. Unless a member of the city council wishes to remove a specific item from this portion of the agenda,
tabs A, C, E through H constitute the consent agenda. These resolutions and items are self-explanatory and are not expected to require additional review or discussion. These items will be recorded as individually numbered resolutions adopted unanimously by the following
motion. that the consent agenda comprised of tabs A, C, E through H be adopted. So move. Second. I have a motion made by Councilman Charles to approve the consent agenda
tabs A, C, E through H. The motion was seconded by Councilwoman Estimate Irvin. All in favor? I. Any opposed? The motion carries with a 5-0 vote. Thank you. And now we are going to we have a couple of
um presentation. We're going to go right quick into them and then I'm excited ready to I see Mr. Brunson here to do our annual um financial report and then we will go
back into and then we'll do city um announcement and then we'll get back into the agenda. The proclamation. Yes, that's what we're doing now. You you want to do the first one? Okay, perfect. Good evening. My name is Kevin Burns,
councilman from District 1. Um, we have several presentations tonight, um, recognizing some special months. Um, one of the months that's coming up for June is the LGB LGBTQ pride month for the month of, uh, June. Uh, Gabriel is here from the, uh, Miami Day County
Commission. If you please uh, come on up. Appreciate it. Um he is representing Miami Day County Board of County Commissioners in reference to their uh LGBTQ uh advisory uh board that they have. Um whereas uh every year the
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer community in the United States has recognized June as pride month since 1969. Um whereas this there was a Stonewall protest uh in New York and that was the
catalyst for the first LGBTQ civil rights movement and over the course of decades and hard-fought social acceptance and legal protections for for LGBTQ individuals and their families. Uh Miami Day County and North Miami have a
vibrant and diverse LGBTQ community that has contributed invaluably to the social, cultural, and economic life of the county and have continued to adopt ordinances and policies that supports the county LGBTQ communities such as
creating the Miami Day County LGBTQ Advisory Board, adopting the county human rights ordinance which protects discriminations based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression among other protected classification. Therefore, I,
Alex, mayor of the city of North Miami along with Vice Mayor Cassandra Timothy, Councilman Kevin Burns, Councilwoman Marie Irvin, and Pierre Councilman Pierre Charles France Charles Dubai proclaimed the month of June as LGBTQ
Pride Month. And we'd like to present this to uh Gabriel who's representing the Miami Day County uh LGBTQ advisory board. Hi, good evening all. I usually uh go off script here because it's just so
normal for us to speak, but on behalf of myself and the entire community, LGBTQ community, thank you for acknowledging us. Uh it's an honor and and I'm humbled to accept this proclamation on behalf of uh all of us uh no matter what part of
the county you lived in. Um, Pride Month is not a celebration, just a celebration. It's also a powerful reminder of the resilience, diversity, and contributions that the LGBT community brings to this. Not only are
we visibly, socially, but we're also economically driven. And I want you to know that the purchasing power of the LGBTQ community in Miami date county is over $15
billion. So don't you forget that when you do something include us cuz we will be part of that equation not only spiritually, emotionally, but financially as well. And that's where we lead in this pride month. not just in
acceptance but also in our continued and ensuring that everyone is treated equally and fairly. And that's what I ask of you. Not only do you treat someone fairly here in your city, but at home, in
school, in church, everywhere you go, cuz we are just the same as you. We're no different. We have the same complaints. We have the same things. And we pay the same taxes as everybody else does. So, thank you very much. It's a pleasure to accept this on behalf of
every LGBTQ community of Miami date county, but more especially, it's even more special because I didn't have to ask more than once. Councilman Kevin Burns responded with his email
immediately. Immediately. Within not even five minutes, I had a a response of a yes. So, thank you to you, Councilman Burns, for for being so uh receiving on this request. Thank you so much. I appreciate
At this time, we would like to recognize fibromyalgia awareness month. It has been all of this month, the month of May. and just going to read a couple things real quick and then I'm going to call two two individuals up um
to accept the uh proclamation. Whereas fibromyalgia is a complex chronic illness condition that causes fatigue, dysfunction, sleep disturbance and widespread deliberate uh debilitating
pain. And whereas over four million people in the United States, two to four percent of the population, such as community leader and longtime North Miami resident Robert Flint, have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a disease which there is no known cure. Whereas it
often takes three to five years to receive a diagnosis. Fibromyalgia is present in children and young adults adults which poses unique challenges for this population who only
not only struggle with the symptoms of this illness but also from the lack of social acceptance. Whereas increased public awareness, education and research are key to winning the battle against fibromyalgia. And whereas organizations
and patient leaders such as Dr. Luis Aragus Ars I'm sorry um a noted rheumatologist have joined together to advocate for fibromyalgia awareness and support a better future for research
treatment and education. Therefore, I, Alex, mayor of the city of North Miami, along with the vice mayor, Cassandra Timony, Councilman Kevin Burns, Councilwoman Mary Estine Irvin, and Councilman Pierre France Charles. Dubai proclaimed the month of May,
fibromyalgia awareness month. So, if doctor, if you could come up and Rob, if you can come up, want to say a few words. Good evening. Um, yes, thank you. Uh, thank you to the city of North Miami. Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, and
councilman. Um and I think on behalf of myself but most importantly on behalf of the patients which will be the ones that are going to benefit from this awareness is the first step recognizing that there's a condition that is very difficult to identify even for uh health
care providers uh patients also they they leave a long time having all these symptoms and not really realizing what they have. Um we are barely scratching the surface on what causes this condition. uh and in terms of treatments we also have a lot of limitations but
awareness is the most important uh aspect once we recognize we can work together to try to find uh treatments obviously trying to individualize uh them to every patient. So again thank you on behalf of the patients that will benefit of increasing the awareness for
fibromyalgia. Thank you so much. As we con as we continue to celebrate each month in the city of North Miami, as you know, this month is Haitian Heritage Month is also Jewish American month, which next um council meeting two weeks from now, we'll have a little
small reception and council um vice mayor Cassandra Timothy and I we will celebrate it in along with the council at the next meeting. But for now, we're going to call um councilwoman Mary Esme Irving who's going to come and present that AsianAmerican and Pacific Islander
Heritage Month this month as well. Yes. Good evening everyone. I am Councilwoman Mary Esté Irvin and like you just heard the mayor said, this is Haitian Heritage Month, but in the city of North Miami, we al we have we are a great city where there's a diverse community and a lot of
people don't know that there is a Asian community here um in the very in the city of North Miami. It's not just in North Miami Beach. So with um we're just very happy to recognize um one of the many cultures and and that we have here.
So I will do some reading. So whereas the month of May is a national recognized as AsianAmerican and Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebrating the rich history and diverse culture and vital contributions of individual of Asian and Pacific Islander um descent in
the United States. Whereas Asian, American and Pacific Islanders have contributed significantly to every facet of the American life including science, education, business, technology, public ser public service, medicine, art, and
military services. And so now, therefore, Alex al Mayor Alexume along with Vice Mayor Cassandra Timothy, Councilman Kevin A. Burns Councilwoman Mary Esther Irvin, Councilman Pierre
Franches do whereby proclaim May 1st to the 31st as Haitian, Asian, excuse me, American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. So please come up. [Applause]
I like to talk. Hi, good evening and everybody knows I like to talk sometimes. Okay. But thank you for our mayor and then thank you for the vice mayor and the council member and the uh to really to recognize the Asian-American community have been in
the city of law Miami for a long time because as we know couple years ago we also here to honor our the doctor Dr. Gilbert Lung and I really on behalf of the families really thank you for the recognition of the Dr. Gubin have also
set up a Dr. Gilbert learn way and because they are serving the community over 40 years in this community and we know there's a lot of also like his um Filipino community, Chinese community but we are quiet. We just work, we just
do the work. So we don't make much noises. So sometime you don't really see us. But if you see there's a Chinese restaurant, there's a Thai restaurant, there Japanese restaurant, then you know we are in the community. So on behalf of the Asian
committee, we also with Asian-American advisory board is doing the service for the community and connecting all the duct in the Miami day county and beyond. And those is the one that we we I'm going to have the chairwoman going to say a few word because I'm I'm serving
the community and but a lot of people know me but I also let people knows about chairwoman Taiwas have been also serving the Miami day county Asian America advisory board. Good evening and thank you. Um as uh we are so honored to accept these
proclamations as Winnie had mentioned and the chairwoman had mentioned that Asian community contribute and we are part of the community. We contribute so uh to the uh to the uh to the community in so many ways and in so many areas. But because of that, we are one of the
community and we committed as an Asian community to be to do whatever we can as a responsible community to be part and to better our community as a one community. Thank you. So good. My name is Joshua H, the
program director for Miami Day Countyy's Asian American Advisor Board. Just to let you know, I'm a product of North Miami. went to WJ Bryant, Northman Junior High, North Mass Junior High, right? And also taught at Northman Middle School as well. And and I see a couple of my students doing great
things. I want to say vice mayor is part of North Middle School on Espar as well. But just let you know, North Miami is a place where we can all enjoy life. And if you look around, we're together. And as Gabriel, our sister board said in
Miami County, it's all about being fair. But at the same time is being at the table. We all need to be at the table to work together to emphasize that we are human beings. At the same time, we're brothers and sisters, right? As pastor said this morning at this uh evening, we
are together. And then he quoted from Michael, at the same time, we all need to love one another having the respect so we can grow one another together as a community, as one community. I know we're diverse. Diverse mean we're separated. We're different. But we come
together as one and and I hope the city of North Miami keep on building on that because let me tell you I enjoy North Miami. When I call North Miami I see my students everywhere and I enjoy them and that was the dinner of discipline. Either they love me or they hated me but
95% they still love me even though I suspended them. So I want to say North Miami the mayor the vice mayor the council I want to say thank you for this opportunity of working together. Thank you. Thank you. She failed.
Oh my god. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Thank Thank you again. And now um I could say a moment we've been waiting for. And did I Oh, is it announcement? I thought it was um the presentation.
Yeah. Let's go ahead and um this moment. You know, often when things don't go right, we hear residents, everybody complaining about the city, this and this and that. But I'm I'm eager and excited to to say that I think after
today's financial presentation, we'll have some good light in North Miami, which is well um needed. Sir, the floor is yours, please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, mayor. Good evening, vice
mayor, council persons, uh, administration, city manager, and citary of city of North Miami. Uh, it's our pleasure. I'm Tony Brunson of Anthony Brunson CPA, certified public accountants. And it is certainly a
pleasure tonight to uh, present the results of your audit for the fiscal period ending September 30th, 2024. I'm going to talk a little bit about the scope uh of the exam. Just knowing that the
the your financial information is audited pursuant to generally accepted auditing standards, their government auditing standards as well. And there are several segments of the city being the government activities. The businesswide activities which are
typically your uh water and sewer funds, the revenue earning funds, all the major governmental funds that you present your budgets for, general fund, CRA fund, CDBG entitlement fund. There's audit also of the land closure and the
American Rescue Fund. It's primarily the last stream of dollars from CO 19. Uh the other funds that were specifically audited include the major proprietary funds or water and sewer and
storm water. Uh we did an extensive review of the internal control environment over your financial reporting and the uniqueness of the city or public sector organizations. Is there an extensive amount of compliance done in terms of reviewing uh your grant
awards, the compliance with laws and regulations of the state of Florida as well and your ordinances of course. So those uh tests were done uniform guidance or the federal programs and the compliance with the rules of the Florida
Auditor General or all the state grants. So, um, with that, I'm joined by Jean Boro, uh, who act, who served as the audit principal this year, uh, of the account, and we'll kind of pass it on to
him so he can walk through the actual results of the, uh, financial statements this year. Good evening, everybody. As Mr. Bronson mentioned, my name is Jean Boro. I'm a principal at Anthony Bronson, PA. Uh Mr. Bronson
provided you with the scope of the examination and audit that we perform and I'll give you the significant result and then we'll walk through uh the financial uh numbers of the city as of fiscal year 2024.
Oh, thank you. All right. As far as uh financial result, uh we will be issuing an unmodified opinion on the financial statements as well as the uniform guidance. Um what that mean is that the city received a clean opinion uh for
fiscal year ended September 30, 2024. Uh meaning that there was no significant issues that we found or any significant adjustment that was done after the trial balance was provided to us. Uh as Mr. Brunson mentioned again uh
there was uh some testing done over internal control or we take we take a look at the internal control there were no findings there either and no findings on compliance uh of the uniform guidance uh we were we required to
report any reportable matter but there were none find found as well uh for fiscal year 2020 form uh as part of our added value we provided management with two recommendation uh to improve financial management. One is on account
receivable and uncollectible accounts as well as uh schedule of expenditure of federal awards and state assistance. I'm not sure if you want to mention anything on those but those were the two recommendation we provided to management for this year. Yeah, just for clarity on
the recommendations for the accounts receivable and allowances from collectible accounts that is specifically um for commercial accounts that we need to take a closer look at as we move forward and the schedule of expenditures of federal awards and state
financial assistance that is all of the ARPA funds have been encumbered. We don't owe ARPA any money back. This was a technicality where we just had to encumber instead of expense a certain amount.
Thank you, Madam CFO. All right, we'll move on to the next slide. So, as far as the next slide, uh this is essentially the financial result uh as a whole for the governmental activities. As you can see on the board, you'll notice that at the
end of the year, the city ended with $242 million in asset, uh 181 million in liabilities, a net deferred inflow and outflow of 16 million, and a net position at the end of the year of 76 million. This is essentially the net
asset after you take all your liabilities out uh of the assets. So that's the net asset of the governmental activities for the city. Obviously, as you can see as well, we presented three years um from uh fiscal year 2023 to 24.
You see an increase in net net position. You also see an increase in total asset and total liabilities. Uh those those increase has to do with one the CRA that um issued some bond in the in in the current year as well as the purchase of
a building that the city did this year or the the Scott Cavvern Center I believe. All right. On this slide is showing the the statement of activities or for the proprietary proprietary activities. Essentially uh again the total asset for
the the business type activities were 100 100 million 100.7 million for fiscal year 2024. liability were about 23 million and a net position ended about 78.5 million uh during fiscal year 2024
and again you see a lot increase from 23 to 24 about 2 million. Thank you. All right, we like to present you know a breakdown of the the revenues for fiscal year 2024 and in comparison to the
fiscal year 2023. And again uh one thing I want to highlight here uh you'll see the increase as uh the the the significant increase that you're seeing here is in uh prop property taxes an increase of about $10 million from
fiscal year 23 to fiscal year 24. uh you see a few other increase and decrease throughout but that was a significant increase from fiscal year 23 to 24. It's mainly has to do with the uh property taxes.
On this slide, we're showing again uh the governmental activities and that uh those are the expenditures for fiscal year 23 and 24. And again, you'll see in total at the bottom there's an increase of about $10 million. Uh but mainly
driven by the uh general government expenditures from 32 in fiscal year 2023 to 30 uh 45 from 32.9 to 45.8 8 about 12ish million dollars uh from last year to
this year and again that expenditure mainly driven by the uh the Scott Gavin Center that was purchased and there's multiple increase and decrease throughout uh the grouping that you see here. Just a s uh summary highlights here. Uh
the general fund this year ended up with a surplus of 3.5 million a fund balance of about 21 million from the general fund as well. So that was a significant increase from last year um or an increase from last year to uh from last
year to this year as well. Um again in the revenue you'll notice that um uh total increase or general revenue increase about 8.4 four million and a program re program revenue increase about five
million. All right, some quick quick highlights about the business of activities. Uh the city ended fiscal year 24 with a total revenue of about 45.2 million and a total expenditures about 35.6 million. And again, we
presented the 22 and 23 just for comparison purposes. As discussed earlier, uh, property taxes, there was an increase in the revenue and again this is guided by the taxable property value within the city
border from fiscal year 23 to 24 22 23 was about 5.2 billion and 24 was about 5.8 8 billion and uh city has seen an increase from 2018 to 2024 in property
values. Uh this slide is just meant to inform you that we had already issued the landfield report for fiscal year 2024. Um and I think one question we had was how much is left in uh in that fund?
About $5.6 million for fiscal year 2024. Um, as we mentioned, we were supposed to test compliance as well as part of our audit for fiscal year 2024. And as part of our risk assessment and and uh testing that we're supposed to do over
those grants, uh we selected two different program for testing this year. One of them is the COVID 19 or APA grant that was received by the city and it's almost done. uh as of fiscal year 2024. And then the second one we tested was the community
uh development block grant, CDBG grant um in fiscal year 2024. And obviously as I mentioned earlier uh we issued an unm we planning to issue unmodified opinion over um the uniform form guidance and
single audit. Awesome. Any questions? Well, we have a lot of questions, but before be before that, um before I go to my colleagues, um Miss Reyes, any questions? Any any statement
before I go on and do my comments? None yet, Mr. Brunson. Well, I just think uh it's a credit to the city and your your team. This is the first year you've had no
comments since 2019, I believe. So, I don't wish to take that lightly. Uh they've been working real hard. You know, in the past that uh there were some challenges. So, it seems uh that we've turned that around in respect and
in respect to some operating profits in lie of is that Jerry Lazar back there with you? Jerry, how you doing? Good. Thank you. Oh, it's a real really positive uh well from the perspective indeed and when we when I had my
briefing on this one of the things that I do say and I know we have a former mayor on this day with us we all know as politician when things go bad they blame us and and and and I'm not saying this but this is something that was
intentionally and anyone who have watched since I became mayor that became one of my I had five pillar and the the former manager who's coming back in the the day that I became I was appointed two days later she walked into
my office and she said what's the agenda where we are and I said give me um a few weeks and two weeks later I came back w with um our goal moving forward and one of the pillars was our financial
stability in the marching order where we whatever that we do we need to make Sure. And I pulled the manager and the financial um director at that time and then also with with Miss Reyes and Miss Annabro to know that that is so
important to me that knowing that we are moving this ship forward and I did hear different things in the middle of the year that hey we may not getting a clean cafer report and I went back to administration to make sure that so we've been carefully doing this because
if this was bad and we've always hear from people So I do and we are going to shoot our own little thing to put it out there. So it it is um a collective work but this is something that started with the previous administration that came in um prior even to before Russia um came
in. We had already set the foundation um with Anisha Daniels coming in. The focus was always the water plant, our financial stability in order, public safety and social services in and in in the program customer service bringing making sure that residents are first. We
are first and we are moving the city in in in a wonderful way. And I have to say kudos to the new administration, the current administration, Annabbo, um, and of course our financial um, that director, Miss Reyes, for doing the work
that needs to be done. Cuz it was they knew they could tell you. I would walked in and say we got to make sure whatever that we do, what what's the right thing that we do not have any report that's otherwise that we are doing what needs to be done. We are building our reserve. My goal is I want to le leave this in
two two years from now in a better place and I think we in that right and then whatever happens after that. Hey, but I want to say thank you. Thank you to you um Annabbo but started with Rasha and all of all of that team and um
Teresa that's coming back and and everyone else. Um, so we we this is a a good thing and I've been here for over a decade and I have never said we I think when I first got here we had a report that was a little bit where we it wasn't we wasn't down the the line of deficit
but and then it kind of went down and of course the situation did not help us where we are on the the the pandemic came and we it's a lot of struggle we had to and thank you to the directors the the departments I I love seeing that the expenses is way less than than what
we are bringing and that's what we want to that's what we want to see. So thank you again to staff to honorable and your hard work and is not is not trust me that the public is aware and and we're going to um celebrate at at the time. So thank you. Thank you again. So those are
it Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Anyone? Okay. I just want to uh uh thank the mayor for his leadership on this several years ago as he said. Um definitely want to give a shout out to the uh inter
manager um because we have to deal with the person who's making the changes in front of us now and I commend you and your staff um the budget department the CFO you're doing outstanding job each director and each employee watching out
how they're spending the money getting the work done getting um compliance making sure that we have the receipts and the documentations um to the uh uh budget department because you know we can spend money, but she she hounds you to make sure that you
have the receipts and that you document what it was for and whether it's a receipt for $3 or if it's a receipt for 3,000, it's just as important to them and um it's outstanding. Um it has been a long time since we've had clean
reports and I'm glad we're doing that. I just did have one question after our briefing. I didn't and um wanted to know how do we um attribute how do we do unfunded liabilities such as sick and vacation time u do do we still have that
and how do we account for that in the the audit? Well, those unfunded liabilities are included in the audit and they are acred and fully accounted for under the general fund uh you know through
throughout the audit process. Okay. So, they are there. We have a set number somewhere that we know that down the line we've got to address these things. Correct. If you if you look at I believe there's a note in the financial statements for liabilities. So, you'll see a compensated absences uh line
there. So, you can take a look at there. There's going to be one for business activity and there's going to be one for governmental activities. So, if you total that, you'll see the unfunded um um payroll or liabilities. And has it looked like it's uh decreasing the unfunded liability? Do you know off the
top of your head? I know it's Unfortunately, I do not, but I do not know on top of my head. Okay. Yeah. All right. Very good. Thank you. That's all I have to say. Thank you all. Your team did a very good job and uh briefing us and explaining everything and answering our questions and uh um very it's uh
very good to uh to uh to hear this on this side of the stuff because there's a lot of It's always good to be in the green and not green, not the red. It It's been a long time and the residents will appreciate it when we buckle down. I mean, years that used to talk about us, the party, the travel and all this
and all that. And this was pre um pre the pandemic and we've done what we need to do. But I also have to say aside from the manager and and and her team to all the directors um thank you because this is a team effort. Councilman. Um thank you very much uh mayor. Um, good evening
to everybody and just want to echo the same sentiments as the mayor and um, Councilman Burns and say thank you to everybody who've been part of this um, our administration and um, of course um, all of us understand that um, fiscal um,
responsibility. It is a duty is part of what we do as um, elected official. We just want to make sure that everything um looks good and uh we are on a very good site and I just want to say um thank you to you mayor for your leadership on that. um now quickly as we
are celebrating in here but we need to make sure that um 2 3 5 years from now we just stay on the green and that's uh basically the road map and I know um we're talking about some major federal
programs and one of them is the COVID 19 or um ARPA grant and um I heard you said Mr. that it is like almost done or it is done completely. It is it is done. Okay. It is done. Yes sir. It is done and uh
by knowing that we know we have to double double our effort because we are no longer receiving that money and then that's um we are going to fill it in uh in the long run. Right. Right. Our plan is that we've um consistently been going
after grants and contributions to bring in and diversify our revenues to continue the trajectory that we're on right now. And um on the CDBG grant, um is that going to be an in effect for
next year, the year after? Is that because I heard a lot of cuts are coming. Would that be part of uh of uh the cuts that are coming from our federal administration? I believe so that some of the CDBG grants are getting cut. We don't have a a report as of yet,
but we're waiting for that to see how that's going to affect us. So, we fully understand that as we uh we as we are dancing, we have to be careful. We cannot just close our eyes, right? Correct. So, we just have to still um be mindful of our spending and how we allocate our dollars. Yes. Yes. So that
is that should be taken into account because that will um make some big changes in the numbers starting next next uh fiscal year. Right. Yes sir. Thank you. And um going back to
um uh that page three at the bottom on um recommendation. Yes sir. And I know we were very very active after those um commercial accounts and then I don't know if it's because of the
situation that we were in. Yes. And I and I and I know um but my question is that what do we need to do at this point to go back and be active because we need to uh find a way to um start collecting those funds again. Right. So, right, as
of right now, we have begun turning off um commercial accounts. And I'm not saying apartment buildings and things like that. That's that's a separate conversation. But um we are going off the the high balance delinquent uh accounts and starting to do um
collection efforts, leaning properties and such. Wonderful. because I know we're doing very very well on that and I just don't want us to just lower our guards because we need to collect those money because if we're not getting money from one side, we need to find a way, you know, to uh balance it out because
this would be one one of the best assets that we have. just want to say thank you to um everybody and um Angela thank you very much to you and um uh madame manager all the team Shenson was very nice because I don't have too too many questions because of uh because of uh
your report and thank you just keep up keep up the good work so let's not close our eyes because we still got work to do thank you thank you mayor and counsel thank you manager wrap it up thank you councilman
Thank you so much, Councilman. Um, and now let less. Um, city announcement. Miss Baker or Miss Savannah Smith going? I don't know. No, no, no. Hey, I'm just Oh, you Oh, she is here. Hey, Miss Baker. Oh, the whole PIO
here. Oh, Steph. Okay, we see you. We ready. We ready. I am going to try to read as fast as possible, but please bear with me. Good evening, mayor, council, staff, North Miami neighbors, and guests. My name is
Savannah Dre Smith, and I'm presenting the following announcements on behalf of the city of North Miami. Attention North Miami business owners. The city of North Miami is offering green rehab grants of up to $10,000 to assist businesses in improving their facilities, increasing energy efficiency, and reducing energy
costs. To apply, visit www.northmfl.gov/economicdev. Make your voice heard and unite for progress with the North Miami Commission for Women. Join us every third Tuesday of the month from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. right here in the council chambers. For more information, visit www. visit northm.gov/cfw.
Vice Mayor Cassandra Timothy invites North Miami residents to join free basic to advanced computer classes every Saturday until July 12th at the North Miami Public Library. The classes are offered from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and include training in Microsoft Word, Excel, email, and more with Creole and
Spanish interpreters available on site. To register, visit the library or call 305891-5535. Proof of North Miami residency is required. Thinking about buying your first home? Join us for the firsttime home buyers education workshop in Creole held every fourth Saturday of the month
from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the North Miami Public Library. Learn about grants, down payment assistance, closing costs, and more. To register, call Expert Resource Community Center at 3056527616. Bloom is an interconnected web of ideas and artistic expressions
embodied by the entire Teen Art Force cohort, extending beyond a singular concept. Teen Art Force is a celebration of the young and gifted artists own blossoming. Visit the museum to witness the extraordinary talents of our youth. High school students living in
North Miami, here's your chance to gain paid experience this summer through the 2025 Youth Opportunity Board 6E internship program. Participants will work 20 hours a week and have the opportunity to earn community service hours. Apply now at northm.gov or scan the QR code on the
flyer. Discover art in the community, a special exhibition inspired by Mocha's 2024 2025 programming featuring the powerful works of Andrea Chung, Philip Smith, and Vicky Pierre. This initiative brings contemporary art beyond museum walls to
spark creativity and connection for all ages and is available until June 1st, 2025. For more information, visit mochanomi.org. In recognition of Haitian Heritage Month and Mental Health Awareness Month, the city of North Miami Youth Council invites the community to a meaningful
panel discussion on Wednesday, May 28th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the North Miami Public Library. Hear from local youth leaders and mental health advocates as they explore resilience and the challenges facing HaitianAmerican youth. Today, the last KMA dance class is taking place this Thursday from 6:30
to 8:30 p.m. at the Griffin Community Center. Come out and celebrate Haitian Heritage Month one more time through music and movement on May 29th. Get ready to go wild at the North Miami Public Library. Join us for the summer reading kickoff with the Wild Animal Show hosted at the North Miami
Public Library this Saturday, May 31st at 1 p.m. For more information, contact the North Miami Public Library at 3058915535. In celebration of Haitian Heritage Month, Councilwoman Mary Esme Irvin invites the community to close out the m the month on May 31st with a ceremony at
Mocha Courtyard from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Let your imagination shine with the North Miami Public Library summer reading challenge. Register now at northm.beanstack.com and join us from June 2nd to July 25th for a chance to
win big. Winners will be announced on Saturday, July 26th from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Family Fun Day and Summer Reading Wrap-up. Taking place at the North Miami Public Library, it's your chance to read, win big, and color your world with fun. This summer, little ones and their caregivers can sing, dance,
and play at the North Miami Public Library Zoomi summer session. Classes take place every Monday at 10:00 a.m. from June 2nd through July 28th, offering music and movement, fun for children ages 0 to 4. Register at zoomini.com or scan the QR code on the
flyer. Be part of shaping the future of North Miami by attending one of the upcoming LDR update sessions featuring the flavors of Nomi. These engaging events offer residents the opportunity to weigh in on land development regulations while sampling delicious bites from local restaurants. Visit
northmafl.gov/lrs for updates, locations, and more details. Vice Mayor Cassandra Timothy welcomes you to the 2025 State of the District Town Hall on Wednesday, June 4th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Northm Public Library. Learn about recent accomplishments, upcoming projects, and
new resources available to the District 2 community. Reserve your seat at 2025 State of District Town.eventbbright.com. Discover what's new in flood prevention and updates to North Miami's flood ordinance during two special outreach sessions. The first
session will take place on June 5th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Sky Goblin Community Center. The second session will follow on June 12th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Joe Celestian Community Center. A member of the mayor and council may be present. Students in grades 3rd through 6 can dive into the world of coding
every Thursday from June 5th to July 31st at the North Miami Public Library. No experience is needed and laptops will be available on site. Call 305891-5535 to register. Please remember space is limited. Book lovers, don't miss the
summer literary suaree at the North Miami Public Library with featured reads on June 5th, July 3rd, and August 7th. All beginning at 6 p.m. Enjoy engaging book discussions and receive a free copy of the featured book while supplies last. To register, please call
305891-5535. This summer, teens can dive into fun and creativity with the North Miami Public Libraryies teen programs, including anime club, art workshops, gaming days, and a youth empowerment camp. Activities begin in June and run through July. Perfect for making new friends and
learning new skills. Visit northm.beanstack.com or call 305891-5535 for more information. Starting June 10th, kids can boost their reading confidence in the most adorable way by reading to therapy dogs at Wags and Tails. This
heartwarming program takes place every Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. at the North Miami Public Library through July 29th. The excitement is non-stop every Tuesday at 10 a.m. this summer during show day at the North Miami Public Library. From bubble shows and magic to planetariums and DJ dance parties, each
week brings a new adventure. Call 305891-5535 for more information or visit northfl.beanstack.com to register. Step into summer with sto soul step line dancing every Wednesday at 6 pm at the North Miami Public Library starting June
11th. Learn fun line dances that bring the community together while promoting movement, culture, and good times. To stay up to date with Nomi news, events, programs, and services. Log on to North Miamiy's official website at www.northmfl.gov. Click connect with Nomi on the homepage to sign up for the
city's newsletters. Also follow us on Facebook and Instagram at NorthmFL on X formerly known as Twitter at Nomi News. This concludes the city announcements. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much Miss Smith. Appreciate that. And we are moving right along with city
announcement. And seeing none, um we are up to where are we? Tab B. Go ahead. A proposed resolution of the mayor and city council of the city of North Miami, Florida, co-desating a portion of 131st Street from Northeast 2nd Avenue to Northwest 14th Avenue to be known as
Councilman Jacqu Despino Street, authorizing the intram city manager to allocate and expend the required funds to cover the cost of signage and to do all things necessary to effectuate the code designation providing for an effective date and all other purposes. Tab B. Thank you. Thank you so much,
Madame Clerk. I appreciate this the I had asked the this item to be pulled just um to explain to my colleague. I did have a conversation with Councilman Jacques Despinos who served district 3 for a long time. He had indicated that
they had preferred they wanted the the the breeze swept park to be named instead. I did I I don't know if the it was been in conversation about it. So that that was my reason and I know that the maker of the item um vice mayor is
not here. So I wanted to ask the board if a consideration as a long serving elected official which could have been any of us if we could have do that instead of this cuz he basically he told me they didn't want the name the street naming. So that's why I wanted to talk
to So Councilman, I don't know if you had any um conversation with Councilman um Despinos about it or you Councilman Burns or where we are through you Mr. Mr. Mayor. Um having worked with uh Jacques Despinos. Oh yeah, you won the
council with him. Absolutely. And um he was a fierce advocate for his district. He was a fierce advocate for the Haitian community. He was one of the first Haitian elected
officials uh in Miami Day County, but prior to that, he spent many years getting people registered to vote that civic lessons and he was at the forefront of many, many different things. Um, I would move an uh an
amendment to this that we name Breeze Park in honor of Councilman Jacques Despinos. Um, and if you're saying they don't want the street, that's one thing. Either in conjunction with the street
and or just the park. But I have thought for a long time that it was the uh that he fought to keep that park many many many years um um before a lot of other people came around and uh he was always
fighting um to make sure that that park got the little bit of attention that it got. And I I think that is a 15, you know. Um um Councilman, when I when I saw the started having conversation with
Councilman, as as we all know, he's he's served our city very well. He's not doing too well in in health now. So, he did make made the he made a request to me personally about um the the naming of the park um in terms of that and I said I would I didn't have a chance to bring
it up to to management and trying to figure out where we are. So, um I don't know where are we with um Councilman um No, no. Um uh I'm sorry, mayor, can I just get a clarification before the councilman speaks? So, Councilman Burns, are you making a motion that a motion to
name Breeze Web Park in honor of Councilman Jacques Despinos and and keeping the 131st Street? Okay. Thank you, Councilman. Yes, sir. You got a second. Oh, well, I'll second. No, I will sec I'll second it. Um, but the only thing I'm just going to ask a
question to I have a question to the attorney because it goes all the way to 14 Street. Yeah. He didn't serve district 4. Yeah, that was my other thing. So, can it be the street? That was my thing with the street. Can it be his street? I guess from it's up to us
because the avenue also you can make it northeast 2 to northwest 7. I mean northwest 6. You don't even want a street. No, no, that's fine. The street. Leave the street. I mean that's what he said. They didn't want a street and and um the the other thing for uh for um um
our city attorney is that naming um public pl uh places on uh people are still living is that I I heard we never had we don't have no we have no rule for that right there's no prohibition against it was the thing yeah thank you
all right so to repeat my to repeat my motion would be to um change the destination from northeast 2nd Avenue to Norththeast 6 Northwest 6th Avenue. So from Northwest 14th Avenue to Northwest going into Why even going to district?
Can they do district three? I think that's fine. We can even extend it to northwest of uh uh St. James. So stop at I 95, but we can also extend it to the east of Northwest 7th Avenue. Okay. That would make it like better. Yeah. up to
up to Norththeast Avenue. Yeah. So from Northeast Second Avenue to Norththeast 7th Avenue. Yeah. To Northwest 7 and naming Bree Sweep Park. Yes. In his honor. I think that that's fitting. Oh, thank you guys. And to be done as soon as possible. He would be happy. And I'll second I'll second them. Oh, thank you.
I think he'll be happy. I'm sorry. Yes. Go ahead, ma'am. Mhm. The concern is whether or not these are streets that are county streets or city streets and making sure the designation that was done at the county and making sure that it does not Well, it's it's the same
resolution. We actually cutting it off. We So, it should be better. I'm assuming, is it my understanding we already got permission from the county? Yes. So, that means that whatever that we have from the county was for the long extension up to Northwest 14. So we're
just cutting it seven avenues I guess up to northwest 7. So which technically if they've done it correctly we should be okay. So we're just cutting up to 7th Avenue instead of continuing it right Mr. Attorney. So we should be good in in that case and it and if it isn't we'll
come back. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And I'm not Yeah. I'm not too thrilled with the street but I'm I'm I'm good with this one. If we can do that as as soon as possible. As soon as possible. We will well we'll start the planning once it's going. Madame clerk. as soon as you finish reading. Okay. So, I have a
motion made by Councilman Burns to rename Bree Park in honor of Councilman Jacqu Despos in conjunction with the renaming of the street from Northeast 2nd Avenue to Northwest 7th Avenue to be
known as Councilman Jack Despino Street. The motion was seconded by Councilman Charles. All in favor? I. Any opposed? The item passes with a 300 vote. Thank you. Can I please also be added as a um part of the motion am not
the maker but as a sponsor. Sure. Thank you so much. Can we um also leave in breeze swep there? Um yeah, it's always Yeah. Breeze but breeze swep underneath there. So well known as part of the community. And you know what though councilman people not really going to
pay attention like oh it's the new park jack this panel park and people known like this is brie swep Joe Salstein center is because it's a new place so the name just come but an existing place that's already there it's just the formality nobody's going to call it the jack despel park or anything like that
but you know it's it's it's it's nice at least for the services thank you so much councilman appreciate that m madame madame clerk what was the the next one we had moved the Next item is Tab G. Yes, ma'am. Mayor, the council woman asked to have it brought to the next
meeting. Okay. Deferred. That's even better. Okay. So, we are on tab H or D. No, consent is um I I I was pulled. Tab J. A proposed resolution of the mayor and city council of the city of North Miami,
Florida, authorizing the interim city manager and city attorney to negotiate and execute an agreement between the city of North Miami and AJ Center, Inc. to provide professional tutoring services at Suniss Grove Community Center at a cost not to exceed $100,000 providing for an effective date and all
other purposes. Tab J. Thank you. Thank you so much, Madame Manager. Any presentation? It's a straightforward I know we've been talking about this and this is a company that's been providing the service for the last couple of um years. I I I but two years. Okay, I see
Christine. Hey. Okay. So, this is a straightforward. I don't know if any council has any question. I'd like to just move for approval. Um public hear. Yep. And then with that being said, public hearing is open on the item. Thank you, Councilman Burns, for
reminding public hearing is Mike. Nothing about the kids. We good to go. We good to go. Mike says it. We good. Move approval. Second. I have a motion made by Mayor Desme to approve the item at tab J. The motion was seconded by
Councilman Charles. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Item passes with a 300 vote. Tab K. A proposed resolution of the mayor and city council of the city of North Miami, Florida, authorizing the execution of a modification to subgrant agreement between the Florida Division
of Emergency Management and City of North Miami to provide for an extension of time in which to complete the watershed master plan providing for an effective date and all other purposes. Tab K. Thank you so very much, Madam Manager.
We do have a presentation from our director of development services. Hey, Debbie. Hello. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council. For the record, Debbie Love Development Services. Um, this is a pretty straightforward request. Uh, we
originally contracted with FDEM for a grant to develop a watershed master plan. Um since the time that the plan was originally uh proposed, the state has made additional changes which requires an extension to be able to
complete it. So you have two extensions in K and L. They are for the watershed master plan. The first one is uh for the um is for the actual grant itself with FDEM and the second is extending uh
FAU's services to complete that uh watershed master plan. I'm here to answer any other any questions you might have. Oh, thank you. That was straightforward. Um with that being said, public hearing is open on the item.
Public hearing is closed. Seeing for approval second. I have a motion made by Councilman Charles to approve the item at tab K. The motion was seconded by Mayor Desome. All in favor? Any opposed? Item passes with a 300 vote. Tab L. A proposed
resolution of the mayor and city council of the city of North Miami, Florida, authorizing the execution of a modification to master research agreement agreement number C-24-026 between the city of North Miami and Florida Atlantic University FAU for
the development of watershed master plan to provide for an ex for an extension of time in which to complete the watershed master plan providing for an effective date and all other purposes. Tab L. Thank you so much. Tab L. Yes, ma'am. Again, this is the companion item that
goes along with K. This is for the extension of FAU to complete the work on the watershed master plan. Thank you, ma'am. So move second. Hearing is open on the item. Seeing none,
I have a motion made by Mayor Desate to approve the item at Tab L. The motion was seconded by Councilman Charles. All in favor? Any opposed? Item passes with a 300 vote. Thank you. Tab M. Tab M. A proposed resolution of the mayor and city council of the city of North Miami,
Florida, authorizing the interim city manager and city attorney to negotiate and execute an amendment to the agreement with ACOM Technical Services, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $364,817 for the provision of additional engineering services related to the update of the city's wastewater
collection and conveyance system, hydraulic model, and calibration services, providing for an effective date, and all other purposes. Tab M. Thank you. Thank you. Um, presentation. I see Tom. I see I see
everybody. Mr. Estrada, are we good? Yes. No back, right? No. No. Uh, good evening. Uh, Mr. Mayor, council members, Alberto Estrada, purchasing director, uh, through the interim city manager. Uh
the proposal that you have before you is simply additional engineering services that are required uh by regulatory requirement if you will by Miami Day County by their code of ordinances. Uh it's uh listed in the council report uh
what the requirements are. Um, these are again regulatory requirements which uh provide that all sanitary sewer collection uh systems such as the one for the city of North Miami uh must be maintained and
updated in a manner to prevent and minimize the possibility of overflows in our sanitary sewer system. Um, here with me this evening, as you mentioned before, is our assistant director for uh, utilities and public works, Mr. Tom
Positano, and also a representative from AOKM, Mr. Roger Williams. He's an um, associate vice president with Akcom. If you have any questions regarding, you know, the technical requirements of the proposal and the services, I'm sure they'll be glad to answer your
questions. Okay. Okay, with umh well let's open public hearing on the item first. See none public hand is closed. Councilman, do you have any question? No questions at this time. Councilman, you don't none. Okay. So far
so good. So can I get a motion? Move for approval. Second. I have a motion made by Councilman Charles to approve the item at tab M. The motion was seconded by Councilman Burns. All in favor? Any opposed? Item
passes with a 300 vote. Thank you. You're welcome. Tab N, a proposed second reading ordinance of the mayor and city council of the city of North Miami, Florida, amending article 4, employees retirement system, ordinance number 691 and article
5, North Miami police pension plan, ordinance number 748, amending section 15-84, re-employed person to permit inservice distributions to rehired members of the Singerman Plan. and amending section 15-124 to permit inservice distributions to
rehired members of the police pension plan providing for inclusion in the code providing for severability providing for a repealer and providing for an effective date tab N. Thank you. Thank you so very much Miss Woodley. Yes. Good evening, mayor and city council. For the
record, Laura Woodley, personnel director um through the interim city manager. Before you this evening for second reading is a proposed ordinance amendment for both the CTS and the police pension plans. This amendment
would permit city retirees to be re-employed after a six-month waiting period provided that the city determines such reemployment to be appropriate. Please note that this amendment has no financial impact. However, it's important to clarify that any retirees
who return to employment with the city will be enrolled in the Florida Retirement System FRS as both the CTS and police pension plans are closed. Um, this concludes my presentation. I'm available to answer any questions you might have. Thank you so much, Miss
Woodley. We had had this um for a couple time now on our council and we've heard about it. Public hearing is open on the item. Um, seeing none coming for approval. Second that and we are ready to vote. Thank you. I have a motion made
by Councilman Charles to approve the item at tab end. The motion was seconded by Mayor Desome. Mayor Desome, how do you vote? Yes. Councilman Charles, how do you vote? Yes. Councilman Burns, how do you vote? Motion carries with a 300 vote. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I want to congratulate my colleagues. We've
done this real fast and now we are at citizen forum. citizen form. Hang on, Mr. Yes, sir. One second. Go ahead. Um, madame manager, um, where is the bell house discussion item on the agenda?
It's not here. It's not printed on this one, but I see on our book. So, some of them are printed. I think on your online version it is printed. Okay. Where does it go? So, let's It's a discussion item, so it can be taken at this time. Okay. So let's let's
discussion regarding bail house sponsor. Hold on mad madam. So let's since I started let's let's do citizens form close that out and then part of the before we do council report we go ahead and do that. So citizen form is open citizen form seeing none it's closed
already then yes um the bail house. Yes sir. Okay. Um, the reason I wanted to have a discussion about the the Bell House, um, to give a little historical history of it. Back in 2006, we granted them, they purchased,
um, the this organization, a organization purchased the Bell House. Um, we gave them a $550,000 uh, loan. $500,000 was to help them reduce the mortgage debt that they were going to have and $50,000 toward
rehab. We gave them a 15-year mortgage with a balloon payment in 2021. They the reason we gave them was so they could reduce their debt and they went and got a mortgage, a first mortgage um from a bank
and everything was good. They they have over the course of the year got an additional additional $3 million from Miami Date County um through the uh um through federal funding. And by the way, the
$550,000 that we gave them was federal HUD money. It was not our money. It is HUD's money. So in 2021, they were supposed to pay that mortgage off to us. They have not. We're
now in 2025. During that course of the time of the the 15 years that they had this loan that the city gave them, um, as I said, they had uh amended it. They have uh uh moved forward. They've gotten additional
funding from the county. And the reason we gave them the money at the beginning was that they separated some units uh to make them affordable for our residents. And that was all in all fine. They were supposed to report to us every year a recap of their rent role, that they're
meeting the obligations, that um the number of our residents that were supposed to have reduced rents were there. Since 2016, they have not made a report to us. Since 2016, they have not made a
report. It wasn't until 2024 that staff notified them that their mortgage from 2021 was due and the city sent them a demand letter saying, "We need our $500,000 back. The 50,000, like I said,
was for rehab. Of that 50,000, they only could account for $39,000 worth of work. So, we still actually held out uh about 11 12 $15,000 thereabouts." um they haven't been good stewards of the
property. Right now they have 10 pending code violations that have been pending since 2024. Simple things like no certificate of use taxes, um no elevator certification, garbage collecting out in the parking lot, abandoned
cars. But in that time, looking at the rent rolls just from 2016, they have taken in millions and millions of dollars every year. This money is not ours. And we had
a problem with HUD before because we had uh when I was mayor at this exact time, we gave four entities the money. Two of them paid us off, one of them had problems. We had to pay HUD back $250 $275,000 thereabouts. We as a city paid
it back to HUD and the city attorney's office went after that that group and was able to recapture the money and and make us whole. But it took a lot of effort on the part of the legal department. But HUD was knocking on our door and saying we want our money. Same thing is going to happen here. They're
collecting money every month. They're not keeping the property in place. They they answered the demand letter and they came back and said, "Oh, we want you to forgive the interest of $66,000. We want you to rewrite the loan
for another 10 years and if we pay our bill on time, we want you to forgive $250,000 of it um because that's your contribution. Year after year, we've done a lot of great things for the affordable housing and so forth. this
entity which we cannot we are not quite sure right this minute if they are still a subsidiary subsidiary of the related group the related group is a multibillion dollar company in South Florida that has
a affordable housing component if they're no longer part of the related group affordable housing group then they violated the terms of our agreement because they changed ownership without getting permission from the
city. If they are still part of that ownership, then I'm sure in the heck not wanting to bail out somebody that is a subsidiary or in partnerships with a multi-billion dollar uh company. The reason I'm bringing this
up, this we need that $500,000 back to to put back into our community. There's people who need roofs. There people who need the repairs. We can use that money. They're collecting rent every month. And if HUD comes to our housing department
and says, "Oh, you've got another loan that you haven't collected. We're not going to give you more money. You have an issue. We want our money back." And so, let's not get in that trouble. They got a demand letter and then they came back and wanted more freebies. And so I
would like us to have the city attorney's office and the housing director and the city manager move forward with serious negotiations. We made the other entity sell their building. Mhm. We made them sell the
building and um this may or may not they are not treating us right. We were good very good partners and if you look through here we made amendments after amendments and we can't even find out who's actually the the the people involved and it's very
convoluted and I would like the city attorney to to look at all legal options available to us because we're as a council going to have to answer to the feds and in this environment with what's going on I don't want to expose us to
any more grief than what's already um out there. Got it. Thank you so much, Councilman Burns. And I think um we we hear the the concern and I am certainly was not aware that I I knew there was some stuff happening, but I I thought that we were moving in the right
direction or we're about to collect. Um Madame Brazil, if I may, through the manager. So, where are we currently wi with them? because I remember was it the last meeting or the meeting before last we attempt to have a resolution I
thought we were in communication with them or it's a different case before our director of housing and social services begins so yes there was an item that was prepared to come before the council for approval for a negotiation so we had there was a proposal a counter proposal
going back and forth on how to bring them current however this discussion is fruitful so it can give us direction on which way it Oh yes ma'am. Hi good afternoon. Good evening everyone. Albert Bazil, housing and social
services director. Um I don't think there is anything to add to councilman Burns. He gave us a great signups. Now what we need u from the council is direction. So how do we go from there? Because this money was due uh August 1st
20 to us. Okay. So we never heard from them. Actually I came on board in 2019. There was nothing. The last code we had from them uh dated it back to 2016. So after research uh we got some
money from 125th developers uh thanks to the city attorney's office and their efforts. But this one is the last of the four loans that remain pending. So the other ones have been satisfied. Yes sir. Oh we need to go after them. Those were separate entities all together. They
they they bell house is under um related they they they part of rel or we don't know yet. So who owns it? Do we even know? Um I I don't know if I have to say it. When I reach out to them, it's like they were not even aware that we have a
loan uh spending on their property. So who took the money? If I may ask quickly to that loan, there was no interest. Well, if the if the if it's defaulted Yes. If it's defaulted, yes. As of now, it's defaulted. They have to pay 4% from
the time the loan was due. But the loan was uh underwrite underwritten for 15 years 0% interest, but you pay the total sum at the end at maturity. Okay. So for 15 years, no
interest loan. Jesus. But they're collecting the rents from people from people. And they were supposed to give us a report at least once or twice a year of the rent roll because we want to make sure that our 33 units that were set aside that they were doing the right thing with our residents since 2016 they
have never given us a report. Can we can let me ask you this, Mr. Attorney. Um are we in the right where we we could ask them for this and if they don't there's recourses that we could do to put a lean on the building? We got to collect. That's the bottom line. What
are our I mean, okay, so this, if you all recall, I I joined the city in 2016. Um, these loans were all a problem in 2016. I hired outside council in 2016. We went through it. We collected on the ones that we could. The
last report uh that Miss Basil um is is talking about came as a result of us reviewing this. Um, in 2016, basically we were told there was no default and everything was fine. And so until just recently, we had no idea
there was a problem with Bell House. Now that we know that there is a problem with Bell House, I'll bring back the outside counsel that we used before. We'll see what um recourse we have. And then, you know, if if the if the council's giving me direction to go ahead and move forward, then we'll move forward. I don't need to bring it back.
We'll do the same thing we did the last time. If there's a settlement, I'll come back to you with a settlement. Otherwise, amen. Thank you, sir. And and and my position is I don't believe we should be forgiving too much of the of the principal. You want to do a little
bit with the interest, but they're not even in compliance with Yeah. the business tax receipts, the elevator uh certificate, the the garbage out that the neighborhood services has to go out there and cite them. Um and people operating businesses within the building
without business licenses. And so, Um, we need to uh I really like to see the city uh that the council gives the city attorney and the housing authority and the manager to uh No, I think we're on board. Yeah. No, no, no. Seriously. And I don't even think shaking up is the
right thing. We need to have them act. Um, Councilman, because it's been too long and and the fact that people think that they could use North Miami for whatever the case is now that you know, hey, we need to make sure that people respect and and you keep your words. yours is your bond and everything. Well,
so with council report moving forward, um, Councilman Burns, on on that note, um, madame um, city uh, manager, is it possible to get our federal lobbyists in here at the
one meeting we're going to have in July so they can give us an update on this this federal budget and what it's going to do to our city. everything from CDBG CDBG loans being I mean grants being cut
out and some other stuff that that we're used to having. Um if they can come in and explain that what the outcome is if there is an approved budget by that point in time we will make the request. Okay. And the other thing is
uh the landscape services where we the status on that as far as putting out for the RFP. We're going to bring it back. We're going to accept the contract uh that was here. Um I understand that if the uh winner of the bid still accepts
it and is going to honor it even though it's a year old that we could possibly still use that contract. I wish we would just go forward with that. Just we need to we we we we need to get this kind of stuff under control. And madame manager, I'd like to get it while you're still here so that we don't have to wait for
the the uh uh potential of a a new manager trying to get up to speed on it and also the will the PBA contract get to us um sometime in June for our ratification. Oh lord, that is definitely the goal. It's I mean the
terms have already been agreed to. So we are wrapping everything up for it to be um have not even been part of none of the discussions. So you guys have had discussions where we agreed on things that I don't know about. That's not the case. What the case is that there has been a tenative
agreement. It is being finalized so that it can come to the board onto the council. My apologies for ratification. So, at that point, you guys have to brief us because those are the the um yeah, we we got to be briefed at least because I I don't really know what's on
the agreement, what we are what you guys are going to ask us for agreement and talk to the the the finance and and to the to the chief, you know, trying to figure it out. So that that is something that we would need to have active you know that's why we I have not even
attended any of the negotiation meetings because I'm thinking staff is doing that you know to brief us on you know where we are on on what's happening but I'm I'm glad that it's moving but we need to be briefed so we'll know what we can and and what we are going to um accept and
what we're not going to accept. So these are um decisions that we need to be aware of in terms of that. I do you know about it? I mean no if we don't know then and that will cause a problem when they come and none of us if we not agree to it or whatever whatever the case is. So please keep the policy makers at
least informed of where we are with that. Um thank you. Are you done councilman? Um go ahead sir. Pretty much done there. I'm sorry. Pretty much done there. Um, again, um, thank you, uh, to park staff and everybody involved with the, uh, Memorial Day, uh, presentation.
It went over very, very nicely. Um, appreciate that. And, um, that's all I have for now. Thank you so much, Councilman Charles. Oh, yes. Thank you, uh, Mayor. Good evening again. Um, just want to say thank you to, um, Housing and Social Services. None other than,
um, Albert Brazil was here for such a nice event on Friday. The ladies were so happy. And then it was like uh last time I saw things like that when was um um God used to come um down to us and then you see people just throwing um
um cans out and then started dancing. Some of them the workers you just push it to the side and then dancing all over. It was so nice. And Albert I just want to say thank you and um thank you to everybody who got involved. I think uh we did uh very very well in um making
them happy. just uh the best we can do and we love them and I know mayor um those are like um mayors uh uh mayor you missed it because we had we had rice oh my god we had rice and everything so you missed it so it was
very good just want to say thank you um again I just don't want to repeat it but uh I have a few questions um for the administration I don't need the answers now but I if you guys can report to me back by Friday. That would
be good. Uh the first one is the citywide landscaping. Just want to know where we at with the process. You just ask citywide tree trimming. I need a report on that. Well, we all want one too.
Uh our northwest Yes. treeing. on Northwest 75 median. What is the plan? Because I just want to say thank you to uh L uh for pushing up and clean it up. Uh but we
just cannot stop there because it looked still look terrible playing nothing in it. So I just need an update on that. So, um, and then the other part I just want
as, um, Council Councilman Burns said it with the with the Bella House situation. So, it's not just Bella House. We need to go after every, um, entity that owe money to the city. We just need to go after them by all means
necessary cuz they are making money, they are collecting money, and the city is losing. So it is not fair. So we need to go after all of them. Just Bell House is the first on the line. But I need to see the second, the third, the 10th because there's a lot of them out there
who they just basically don't want to pay any money. Just don't want to pay any money to the city. So it is something that we need to um keep our eyes on it. And um Councilman Burns, I just want to say thank you for bringing this up. And um at the very end of the Haitian
Heritage Month uh Heritage Month, I just want to say thank you. And it was so nice and um to see that big event taking place on Northwest 7th Avenue at Nomi
Village. And things just went so smooth. traffic was under control thanks to our North Miami police and every other agencies that they have um on under the leadership of uh our chief. Just want to say thank you to you all and um the
residents were not so um dissatisfied. Yes, we will have some complaints. Um I was at the HOA meeting and then we heard um some people were complaining because they didn't collect money uh from parking.
But other than other than that for for us to have an event of this magnitude to have zero incident, it is something for us to say thank you and um chief and the entire team, assistant chief and
everybody who got involved, NSD um we planned it very well. Um the ask was for us to have control over that event before when the event is happening and after and we did. So Sunday morning by
the time I was driving to go to church the street was clean. Everything everything was in order. So thank you to you all. Job well done. Um my manager, everybody who got involved and it was fun. It was fun and just want to say thank you. Thank you to to all of you.
Let's keep up the great work. Thank you very much. And um with that, Mr. Mayor, I yield my time. Thank you. Councilman, please. To follow up on that, um um I want to thank staff and um Debbie's office, the the building and zoning department, the city attorney's office,
the manager's office for getting the place um legal, working through uh helping them work through Miami Day County to get them. It was a it was a great event. It was very comfortable knowing that they had u the tees crossed and the eyes dotted. Uh the city was
protected. It was a beautiful event. I don't want to use the word beautiful but it was a nice event and um that uh people were very comfortable. Um heard back from residents like you did and that we they were very uh happy with it.
Um the eventgoers I think had a great great time and uh I was glad I was able to to stop by there for a little while and see all the activities um from early in the afternoon until uh 11:30 at night. And it was a a very successful um
event that took place there. And again um kudos to the police department, city staff, uh the building officials um and neighborhood services really got it together. and uh uh hopefully we have more of those kind of events out there um moving forward. Thank you. You know,
thank you, Councilman, Mayor Bar. Yes, sir. If you allow me for one second, it was a big beautiful event. Listen, you stopped that. But no, I I'm glad you mentioned that. I I do want to echo um everything that the both
councilman's have mentioned in terms of that. I was a little bit concerned and I share that with the chief. I share that with the Nomi Village because I know what the the this festival have done. I've I've I've been helping them since they first started the the first thing
25 years ago to now. But that weekend, the entire I'll say Florida, North Miami was really really um being in the spotlight in our community in terms of the different activities. And I was very very very very
very pleased with the outcome and the folks. I knew there wasn't going to be any fight or anything cuz they for the past 20s something years they never had none of that. But I was concerned about the the parking, the spacing and it was just thousands of people packed there
and and all behaving just want to have a good time closing and and they were on time. We kind of look at the time by 11:00 they were a little bit but we made sure that everything was was was done in proper 11:15 music was off. um you know and even the last band did not even play
as soon as they got on but they respected the time we did what we do and then the next day um over which was May 18th where FIU was another exceptional um thing I think there they had over 10,000 people that went at FIU um
stadium I went there um myself and I couldn't even stay but it was very well put together um people are very fe fearful the festival itself has 50% of its um thing dropped down since the the the you know the new
administration um came in. So obviously there there's been concerns all over the community in terms of that. But we we glad people came out and they did what they do in a safe and way and kudos to the police the entire police department for doing their work. Um and and as
always doing what you do. As we close out, I want to say last Saturday, I proudly hosted the leaders in training and Councilman Charles came. It was an amazing graduation we had to the social service department. Albert think I think this was one of the best class that we
had had since the inception of the program over six years ago. Um it was 22 outstanding students from North Miami range from the age of 14 to 19. Um they are graduated from this program. they are ready to be the next public servant
in our city um history and and and I'm looking forward to seeing them as they've gone through this educational prepar preparation, career readiness and deeper understanding of local government and the processes of how it works. So I want to say kudo again to to Albert and
your staff since the inception of this program. You guys been doing pretty pretty well. Also, I want to congratulate Maya Bethl, who's a student athlete at North Miami Senior High School. Yes, my pioneer who recently um conclude an extraordinary high school
wling career with an undefeated record of 104 to zero. So, she is a four-time GMAC, district, regional, and state champion, and she has earned a well-deserved
reputation as one of the most dominant female in Westland, in the state of Florida. So, we want to say kudos to her while she she she does all this while she maintain a GPA of 3.5 unweighted.
So, we want to say congratulation to her who's now ranked the number one female wrestling in the state of Florida in the nation. So, we'll definitely have her here um soon in the next meeting to um better celebrate her and and and do what we do. And also, last but not least, um
this is the season of graduations. So to the graduate to the new graduate class of 2025, your hard work and your um you know your perseverance and and your dedication have brought you to this in incredible milestone as you step into
the next chapter. This is just the beginning of your career and as all of us going to um go I guess to graduation. So we we just want to say keep striving, keep believing in yourself and never give up. And and you know the best is yet to come. And at the end of the day,
we all in here are depending on what you graduates do. Especially now in this particular time, we need you guys more than ever to step up and do what's right. Thank you all. Um with that being said, um Mr. Mr. Madame Clerk, report then Mr.
attorney and then Thank you, mayor. Just want to thank the Haitian Heritage Month committee for their hard work throughout the month. And what's understood doesn't need to be explained, so I won't say any names, but
I think there are some folks who really show up and show out without being asked. And I just really want to thank those folks because it's easy to have a a huge committee, but it's it's not easy to find that dedicated few to really put things together. So, thank you all for
your time and your efforts. Uh, Bale 1804, an 18.04 04 mile bike ride uh envisioned by the John Lurfist, our interim deputy city manager uh was a great success and I actually finished
and I really want to thank North Miami PD for not only attending the ride with us but also for supporting us in gathering the police officers necessary to accompany us throughout the ride. I know it takes a lot of work and effort
and negotiations just to get the the proper staffing to make sure that every single rider is safe. But I'm really really thankful for you all for doing that. And also just thankful to all the riders who completed the ride. I think most people completed the ride, if not
almost all of them completed the ride this year. and in theory in theory. Uh but I do want to say that this year, last year I think we raised about $25,000 and this year we were we
were able to raise $40,000 in scholarships for students uh throughout the area. So it's it's a lot of effort, but it's totally worth it. And that's what makes the that particular event so special. The last
thing I want to say because somebody had walked into the room and reminded me that I should say something. The North Miami Senior High picnic, lots of fun. That was so much fun. I 4 hours in the
hot sun and I had a good time. But uh and if there's a Mr. North Miami, if there's like a Mr. pioneer. It's either John Lurifus or Coach Presume because every single person knew them. And I've always known Coach
Presume to be a really special person and a really kind person. And he continues to work with students till this day. He's a coach and a teacher. But a young man stopped him while we were walking around
and said, "Oh my god, you know, this was my my teacher and he kicked me out of class." And he kicked me out of school. And then after that, he said, "Thank you." And this young man broke down into tears. And that's at it's at
that point, Lou, that I realized that I'm not the only person who thinks you're that amazing. Everyone sees it. Not just every single person who stopped you to talk to you and to thank you, but for him to break
down into tears and talk about the way that you saved his life by kicking him out of school and still serving as a mentor to him shows the incredible man that you are and the incredible impact that
educators have on our students. And so I want to thank you for that because in theory it's nice to say that you know coach Presume is always here. He's always around. But to see that to see a grown man break down into tears for a little while we stood there with
him crying holding him. That really speaks to the power of who you are. And I just want to thank you for everything that you do. And that's all. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Madame Clerk. And yes, thank you, coach. Yes, indeed. Well, welld
deserved indeed in in terms of the recognition. And we'll have the um the folks here, M Mr. Attorney. Uh no report, mayor. Thank you, Madame Manager. No report this evening. Yes. Coach, please, if you want, you have a
few words you would like to add. Um please, you do. You do. Please come on forward. But that's what we do as educators, madame clerk, every day. The the impact that we have for um for kids. Um there we go. Not that. Well, when
you're in the classroom, you have to do it. And while coach is coming up, don't the microphones sound nice? Yeah, they sound new. They're on standby to make sure it works. And we have staff on standby for the elevator, but uh the the
sound systems much better. And thank you all for getting it done so quickly. the uh IP staff. Good evening everybody. Good evening. All right. I'm Louis Presume. Graduated from North Miami. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I have been um I graduated from North
Miami and I grew up in the neighborhood. Moved to North Miami in 1990. My father bought a house. U four five brothers and we all live in the same house. Actually went back and bought the same house. Oh wow. And where I grew up at, fixed the house for my father.
But just want to say thank you for everybody that been around North Miami. But some of the some of the concern for North Miami resident that I have is uh that's FIU stadium and fixing the park for the youth of the community. The
youth have nowhere to go. We losing a lot of kids at North Miami transferring to other schools to go other places because we don't have no activity, no after school program for them. And then one of the hardest thing that I we we go through as in North Miami is a home
stadium. We don't have a home stadium. I've been fighting for the stadium to be fixed or maintained for the last 10 years. And each bus ride cost almost $500. So just imagine 10 games is like
$475, $500. And soccer the same. Mostly every we losing money every year. We in red at North Miami because we don't have a stadium. We don't have no fans and everybody's leaving. Also, I just want to said let's
come together as a city, great city that we are right now in North Miami, and put our heads together and try to save the up the new generation that's coming up. Okay? And I'm proud to be a product of North
Miami. And then I have one of my closest friend, Mr. Lurfield here and John Lurfield here with me. Y not saying nothing. I'm always going to advocate for North Miami and I go to all those meetings especially Miss Christine
Carney the board meeting. Yeah, we're losing her too. It's I know it's so sad. I know. But want to say thank you. So if we could come together and try to fix the community the way we've been going. I see we have a beautiful field that's coming up right now. And I also was
waiting on that for the last 10 years. We all been waiting. So I want to say thank you and we'll see the next five years where where no Miami need to be at. Okay. Okay. Thank you everybody. Thank you coach. Don't don't worry about it coach.
We're working on those bleachers. You are going to have them for next by next season. We hope. All right. We're going to take care of your team. Thank you so much. Yes. Second. Motion made by Council Member Burns to adjourn, seconded by Mayor Desome. All in favor?
Any opposed? The We are now adjourned at 8:53 p.m. Good night, everyone. Okay. Department