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information good afternoon good evening everyone regular Commission meeting meeting date Monday March 3rd 2025 at 6 P PM commission Chambers 500 Southwest 109 Avenue roll call Madam clerk thank you madam
clerk we over to the Pledge of Allegiance and the invocation invation invocation and also chairman thank you Mr Mayor in Jesus name I pray dear heavenly father thank you for granting us the gift of Life the gift of breath thank you for granting us
the ability to serve serve our residents serve our city serve our country please continue to watch over us please continue to watch over all city employees our police officers our firefighters First Responders please continue to watch over the greatest military force in the world and a
special prayer for former Congressman lodas Bard and Billy Cyprus both who serve the city of Sweetwater in various capacities uh Ling Bard for what he did for the Cuban Exile community and representing us here in South Florida in
Washington DC and the relationship that we had with Billy Cyprus uh with the mikasuki tribe of Indians has been Paramount so please watch over their families please please grant their families peace and prosperity in this
time of hardship and please grant them entrance into your arms in Jesus name I pray amen amen moving up do we have any special presentation P Clerk May
no recognize that commissioner M has just arrived yes sir thank you presentation of employe of the month award passeng overover presentation of Officer of the month award good evening major Messa Operations
Division here to read officer of the month for January 2025 it is with great appreciation that we recognize Lieutenant Steven Lopez for his outstanding dedication and leadership as the head of our Department's training section and for a great job not only in January but
throughout the year as the head of the training section he coordinates uh all training for our Personnel our guys and gals H he also has gone above and beyond in managing in comprehensive programs such as Firearms qualifications first
aid certification autism awareness and many others his careful attention to detail ensures that our team remains up to dat and fully compliant with essential training requirements making him a critical asset to our department in addition to overseeing routine training Lieutenant Steven Lopez
meticulously coordinates opportunities for personnel to attend Career Development training empowering them to enhance their skills advancing their careers and ser serve our community even more effectively furthermore he is instrumental in coordinating and
conducting all new higher training as you guys saw at the recent swearing Inn we've had a lot of those lately and he does a great job with that his effort to ensure that all recruits are properly equipped with foundational knowledge helps to guarantee their success as they
transition into their new roles he has displayed exceptional leadership organizational skills and unwavering dedication to the growth and development of our department his contributions to training not only enhance the professionalism of our team but also ensure the safety and well-being of our
community for these reasons we commend Lieutenant Steven Lopez for his outstanding surface and recognize him as officer officers the of the month January 2025 let's go forward to take a picture with him and receive his
bring your kids and your wife when you get the end right there thank you thank you so much so reports of officers boards and committees none any additions and delions to the agenda that is I'm
sorry item J okay thank you petitions Communications none uh moving over to consent agenda have a motion to consent the agenda we moved and second all in favor I any n
thank you and now to staff items St item a on owners of the city of Sweet Water amending the city comprehensive plan future land use element policy 1.2 Part: 2
exhibit in order to provide for clearer calculations of deadlines providing for moral Authority providing for exceptions providing for cability providing for codifications providing for an effective date second reading and public hearing mayor Diaz opening to public comments
closing public comments mayor di thank you Mr President and this is simply uh gratification and understanding as to exactly what it says this is a second reading and for a veto period explains now clearly as to what the attorney uh
specified before so that's it if I may just for a moment uh when the mayor asked me to uh to look into this um I relied essentially on the uh the rules that are used by the the court systems in Florida uh so this is modeled on that
set of rules it's almost it's been tailored to our purposes but it's been modeled on that set of rules I do however have one improvement over their rules that I'd like to suggest as as an amendment at this point um the last day and this is in uh uh subsection two the
last day is defined for electronic purposes as ending at midnight use of the term midnight is a little iffy does it mean the night before the current night and so I would suggest that we that the
commission amend this ordinance so that paragraph 2 Suba will read for compliance by electronic means at 11:59 p.m. as opposed to midnight uh if you agree we will need a motion we'll need a
second and a vote on the amendment and then a motion a second on a vote on the item um move all right so we'll go ahead and uh put into amend to read 11:59 p.m. instead of midnight instead of midnight exactly all right so we have a move to the
amendment second but to Amendment roll call Madam clerk commissioner rise uh yes as amended yes yes is amended yes as
amended yes amended yes to amend and now we I'll go ahead and move the item as amended I second it second by commissioner Ruiz roll call Madam clerk yes as amended
yes yes yes yes yes as amended thank you madam clerk moving to item C an ordinance of the city Commission of the city of Sweetwater Florida considering an amendment to the
city's official zoning map from intern District IU and industrial Light manufacturing District I I to Liberal commercial C3 for property identified under folio numbers 2 D 25-30 31 -
00-30 also 25-30 31-- 0310 also 25-30 31- 0000 d0330
and 25-30 31-- 0335 AKA 105 10751 Northwest 18 Street providing for finding the fact providing for cability providing for codifications and providing for an
effective date second reading and public hearing mayor Diaz opening to public comments closing public comments may we discussed this before this was basically yes you guys all went through this and we asked all the questions before this is the second reading do you need more
explanation no we'll go ahead and move this item second second by commissioner well and you second the motion commissioner yes yes commissioner Martin yes commissioner yanel yes commissioner Ruiz
yes commissioner Diaz yes president Ray yes he passes second reading thank you madam clerk moving to d a resolution of the city Commission of the city of Sweet Water selecting successful bidder for invitation to bid ITB 202 24-1 food catering services Mildred and
cod pepper senior activity centers waving minimum bid requirement waving any irregular regularity in the bids or in the procedures providing for authorizations and providing for an effective date mayor
deas thank you Mr President and I think you all know that uh especially a couple of you that go a lot to the eldery center the food has improved drastically they were the lowest uh bidder and we motioned them through and that's it now
I do want to give you some stats the participants uh we've done best practices and one of the things that we've done in the elderly Center is to try to get information from the elderly that they could just you know present in the box and give that information well
it came back that the food 26 out of the 75 participants which is 35% said the food was excellent uh Bueno is the other portion 33% and that was 40 uh 33 out of the 75
which is 44% in total 79% the food was either excellent or good so that's a huge improvement from the past from what we when we first got here and everybody's happy and the other just say regular okay so we're all good we'll take that all day
long so with that I need your support to move forward move and hold on Mr President so the the selection technically has to be made by the commission so you would need to amend the motion on parag actually amend the
resolution on paragraph two to include uh construction catering Inc instead of the blank line that's included in there so so we'll go ahead and amend to include in the blank space Construction Construction catering Inc yes to amend I
move to amend second roll call Madam clerk commissioner Martin yes as amended commissioner yanel yes as amended commissioner Ruiz yes is amended commissioner Diaz yes as amended commissioner via yes is amended
president yes to amend yes all right so now we'll go ahead and move the item as amended I'll move the item in second by Ruiz or no it was moved by commissioner Yan and second by Ru commissioner Yan mov yes roll call Madam
clerk commissioner yanel yes commissioner Ruiz yes commissioner Diaz yes commissioner via yes commissioner Martin yes president Ray yes as amended thank you madam clerk orer e a
resolution of the city Commission of city of Sweetwater approving lease with Peterson Harley-Davidson of Miami LLC for the Acquisitions of certain harleydavidson motorcycles for the city's Police Department approving terms of set leas providing for funding source
providing for authorizations and providing for an effective date mayor Diaz thank you Mr President and I have uh the deputy director police department and that it's going to go over the actual contract but it's simple it's the new motorcycles it's the new lease we're
acquiring the motorcycles for our officers we're turning the other ones and getting the new on uh Deputy thank you Mr Mayor have a question second oh wait commissioner Diaz has a question for thank you Mr Mayor good evening uh
commission uh Noel Gil Deputy Chief of Police for the city of Sweetwater Police Department 500 Southwest 109th Avenue yes sirad yeah how many are we adding anything or we still the same no we're actually for
this uh contract period for the rest of this fiscal year we are actually subtracting one motorcycle uh so there will be a monthly savings of approximately $240 uh because a new contract which will go into effect either in um June or
July when the motorcycles come in uh will um will be a little bit more expensive than what we were paying for the previous motorcycles again and this is a lease correct for three years this is a lease this is a threeyear lease contract our current contract expires
now in May and uh we will go month-to month until the delivery of the bikes at the current rate uh that we are currently paying uh just so that you know we are getting a slight upgrade on these motorcycles uh we are also getting
uh some new equipment the motorcycles that we have had the uh the uh back boxes have been the same since about 2013 the issue is that obviously with some of the upgrades that we've had with computers printers uh and lights uh
require that they should have an extra battery as a matter of fact the previous leases we were having some issues with batteries these new um the new motorcycles will come with a new rear box uh that is a little bit bigger it
does have a an extra battery in it and does also have the ability of housing in cradles both the computers and the printer so in the past the the computers were literally thrown either into the saddle bag or into the box which you
know wouldn't last all that long and we would constantly have to be changing computers and printers for our motormen it is our intent uh to make sure that the the um that will have the savings of not having to you know change their uh computers and
that frequently so that would be a saving thank you uh go ahead Mr Marty uh Chief did we look at any other options or is hardly the only thing we want to ride so the so so we we did look into uh BMW they they make a great issue with
BMW is that you know they don't typically want to take small contracts so it didn't you know we we didn't we weren't able to get one at the current time so it's a price option is that that is it a price issue or um I I would have
to come back to you at a later date to uh see exactly what the issue was okay okay I'll yield with that all right so we have a we had a move by commissioner V wom second by commissioner Yano roll call Madam
clerk uh yes absolutely yes ma'am yes yes yes yes thank you madam clerk going to f and again on on just on behalf of the chief
and the rest of the Command Staff we truly truly appreciate all your support that you always give us thank you always here for your Chief all right item f a resolution of the city Commission of the city of Sweetwater authorizing the mayor of the city of sweetwaters to purchase a new forklift providing for cability and
providing for an effective date mayor Diaz Mo second third Mo call Madam Clerk do I know what needed but yeah chair go ahead mayor just just one question do we budget for this yes this is okay thank
you commissioner Diaz yes commissioner via absolutely yes commissioner Martin yes commissioner yaniel yes commissioner Ruiz yes president Ray yes he passes
thank you so I'm moving I'm moving now to moving forward with Jay first before we go to the appointments uh J item j a resolution of the city Commission of the city of Sweetwater adopting employment rules and regulations providing for authority and providing for an effective
date mayor Diaz move second roll call Madam clerk commissioner via absolutely yes thank you commissioner yes thank you very much B commissioner yanel yes commissioner re
yes J J thank you commissioner Diaz thank you thank you very much Jolie appreciate it thank you you want to thank J too yes president RK you thank you y on behalf of the whole commission I I want
to I want to thank you Commissioners um this is uh very important we have come a long way and now it's uh like commissioner Daniel said to me you know in the today we this is what the Bible was for
us and we had everything there that we could go by and no one was there well our employees deserve the same and now everything's clear cut and there so thank you for your support Jolie thank you for the hard work Mar Alejandra thank you for your work
too Mr Ru just for the record J when was the last time the the employee hand books was updated 2023 20 23 weren't born3 and then that 1984 okay thank you guys all right so moving over you have
everything uh Madam clerk members to the Planning and Zoning Board so I have my appointment um but he didn't come today I wanted to introduce him to you guys um I guess he'll show up next meeting and I'll introduce him to you guys you guys know him Omar play
softball with us is in front of the park the park all right so moving to H nomination consideration appointment to members to the neighborhood Improvement Advisory Board yeah I'm sorry did you guys need something from the
park the park oh that was his nominee from so through the chair thank you sir um look we're we're keep kicking this can down the road with the neighborhood Improvement and the youth Advisory board and the dignitary
protection board uh we're either going to be all in on this or we're going to eliminate it uh I vote to eliminate it I actually created the uh the business development board I eliminated that um it's nice but it's really not necessary
with the continuity that this commission has with the mayor and the administration and staff I mean I just don't see I know I know commissioner BYO is not here I know he he uh created that neighborhood Improvement board and you know I love what he's doing but I think we need to have a meaningful
conversation to eliminate these boards we have the Planning and Zoning Board I don't think we need anything else that's just my personal opinion I don't know anybody else is that I um I just want to see because since it I was going to point out that uh commissioner vce was not here I'm sure he's probably watching
us right now and if if he would bring something to eliminate those two um these these two uh boards were created by ordinance so they can only be undone by undone by ordance so I'll have so if the if it's a commission's wish
I'll go ahead and draft um um new ordinances resending these ordinances and then you know confer with the mayor and if that's uh the wish then we'll have it placed on the on the next agenda all right that sounds through the chair now if through the chair go ahead I I
think just as a profession courtesy to commissioner V since he's not here to speak for himself I mean uh I know former commissioner D Boro created the youth Advisory Board um commissioner Vio created the uh neighborhood Improvement board I created the business development board I think by ordinance we eliminated
the business development board correct um I just like to give commissioner Vice professional courtesy opportunity to go ahead and figure out what he wants to do with that or go ahead and debate and dialogue we might actually have a debate up here for the first time in two years so um that's my request I don't know how you
guys feel about it that you I feel the same way Mr President go ahead Mr Mayor I'll go ahead and uh I'll mean with commissioner VI CEO and we'll look at exactly as uh commissioner B said and we'll take it from there uh we want to make sure that you know we're clear
precise and I understand the point that commissioner bio was saying but I also understand the value that they bring too so uh that's something that I think a little dialogue it goes along long way on this one so let me do my part and
then uh we'll see what happens with him but he is not here like he said and uh out of respect uh the way he was coughing I don't know if he's doing much watching right now either all right so moving to I nomination consideration appointment to the youth Advisory board on here so
we're moving over to reports now um a Mr Mayor report I'm going to report on the park as you all know uh we're still finishing up on ronelli Park and finishing up the last portion of uh Carlo Park on Carlo Park uh today this
started with a striping and to making sure the cement is properly placed along where the food distribution area is taking out the Rocks making all that level cement and making sure it adjacent the fence which then starts the the other six pickle ball courts that are
coming in um the park has been Carlo park has been extremely full I it went Way Beyond I think all of us all of ours expectations and I'm very proud to tell you that I'm very happy with the people
enjoying themselves the TAC could not get any fooler it's crazy and the pickle ball courts that people asking me every day when is the the next ones coming on uh they should be done in the next 3 weeks if my understanding all right so
three weeks let's just one more for good sake in four weeks they should be operational and to your petition and each one of you that I talked individually uh we're just going to put the program in to make sure people could secure their their pickle ball courts in
at the same time there is not a cost I have not implemented a cost and will not do so unless in the future uh we need to add more personnel and we'll see that and I'll talk to each one of you separately and and take it from there uh minist ly I'm not I don't know where I'm
at right now with it let's let it run for a period of time see how it works out people are really enjoying it and having a good time so that's what it's all about for us as far as the uh ronelli Park the when we reviewed and
and looked at the part where the racket ball three- wall racket ball courts were we came up to the conclusion you guys know all this already I'm just recapping a little bit we said it was p a we got rid of them we went ahead and started looking at implementing maybe two pickle
ball courts on that side of the of the city and of course we improved the basketball courts that are professional grade basketball courts so with that said and done we looked at the area the grass area outside of the field which has come out beautiful and the lights
are done everything's done uh but we looked at the part at the home Dugout and as you know we increased the capacity of it because it was too small so maintenance has done a great job working along with Billy and making sure
that we have actually increased the capacity for home players but not only that now we have a um nutritious stand or a cafesito area you know something that we might be putting it out for
somebody to have in the future and that way we have food food cannot go obviously on the fields so we looked and analyzed the the area that surrounds the whole basketball courts and pickle ball courts and we came up with a conclusion
that to have the area done properly and we could have mass amount of peoples there we do not want to have it out of grass because the grass in itself will create a mud Bowl in that particular area if there's people for Fourth of July everything because of concentrate
in that area because of the food because it's not allowed on the field so we discussed this in the past so the contract was Revis Revisited resigned we win with a cement we win with a two pickle ball courts and we win with a proper drainage in that whole area so we
do not have a problem ever and we're moving forward on that that contract I went and released I am still pending the scoreboard as I talk to each one of you individually I'm