[Music] is it working oh I love it is Jington I do have a comcl part of it right good evening everyone it's 6 PM i'd like to call tonight's meeting to order it is April 10th 2025 it's our
regular council meeting lori can I get roll call please mayor Young here vice Mayor Story here council member Brandon here council member Painter here council member French here thank you the invocation and pledge of allegiance will be led by Council Member French thank
you Mayor uh this evening I have a guest from Family Church Jarvis Quete if you could please come up here and he's going to uh pray for us this evening well good evening guys happy to be here like uh Mr jason said "My name is Jarvis
Kuiate student pastor here at Family Church Aquesta and uh let's bow our heads and let's uh let's pray this evening father God we uh we thank you for today God we thank you for all that you are doing here in the village of Tquesta God and so right now we give
this meeting to you God we give uh everything that we uh do Lord to you God and right now we know there are some people in the room right now some people in our neighborhoods Lord who just feel the brokenness God who feel the emptiness without you God and I just pray that Lord that you would just feel their brokenness God thank you for the
amazing gift of your son Jesus Christ for dying on the cross for us Lord thank you for uh being able to have a relationship with you God and so we pray right now God we pray that uh that you give us wisdom that you give us patience and understanding throughout this meeting we pray this all in your name
amen amen amen thank you Jarvis please stand for the pledge of allegiance 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 right can I get a motion to approve tonight's agenda so moved second all in favor i right our first presentation tonight is an annual overview of Palm Beach County Commission on
Ethics are they here i don't think they're here nope okay we'll move on to the second which is a proclamation proclaiming May 10th and 11th as American Legion Auxiliary Poppy Days i don't believe anyone's here for that so
we won't read it into the record moving on to agenda item three a proclamation proclaiming April 25th 2025 as Arbor Day in the village of Dquesta and also an update on Arbor Day event in Tree City USA signs um I don't think Jay is here
to accept the proclamation but Jeremy do you have any uh anything you want to update us on on the event and signs um yeah so we uh are looking at signs we have the location uh pointed out we are having an Arbor Day celebration um that
is coming up she would had a little bit of prompt there but uh you had the date do you have the date the April 25th april 25th that's right and so we're going to do similar what we did last year we're going to invite some some of the local schools i know that um we've
already got uh one of the schools that accepted and they will be here and so we're looking forward to planting another tree um it'll be out here in Village Hall um and plant the tree out in front thank you and I know part of that was
assign locations does council have any uh comments or suggestions on those i know there was a map provided um are we good with those i I had a thought maybe do we put some at kind of the gateways when people come in at you know US1 or
coming in on country cub from you know from the north would it be better to have some of them at our gateway so when people come in here they know that we're a tree city that was really my only thought for I don't know it matters that much but I think it's a big deal but I'm not say it's a big deal i'm proud of it
no especially the uh US1 corridor and you mean the per permanent sign or the temporary just for that time no there's there's permanent signs are to be installed correct Jeremy i'd say as long as it's not a significant cost I think it's a good idea
any other thoughts do it per the plan or do you want to move some to like some of our gateways um I would agree to move one of the the north or the furthest west maybe
towards one of the gateways US1 or Dixie question we might need to plant a few more trees around US1 if we're going to put that there where's that north one seabbrook sebrook remebrance Park very
north one it looks like it's Is that off County Line i think it's Remembrance Park off oh it might be Remembrance Park oh there is a county line one too though yeah I didn't see that one i was talking Oh there's more i don't know tell me how many signs do
we really need yeah is that part of the requirements like we have to put Isn't that part of it or No yeah we do we do need to do some signs i don't know we need to do that many but we we should have a sign up to as part of that program well I think we're in agreeance maybe do at
least one or two at some of the gateways so people see it when they're coming so why don't you just have Jay take a stab at that and we'll we'll leave it at that okay all right everyone good sounds good all right moving on agenda item four annual general employee pension update
by trustees Ben Ward and former Vice Mayor Stone hello hello good evening council vice Mayor mayor attorney village manager clerk and lieutenant it's an honor to be back here
today so um I'm going to start off with the uh talking about a little bit about what's going on Joe employee pension as we have a PowerPoint not today so there's a couple things not right at the second where we have connection issues is our computer reset so give me give me
a minute no we're good we're good so keep in mind pensions are um have a couple different layer levels that you can pull back and forth and how they have an impact on the overall um residents and the members so the general employees pension has a two-time
multiplier so what that means is basically every year of employment they get 2% of their final compensation that they get on an annualized basis so if an employee works 10 years that's 20% if they work 20 years 40 30 years 60% and
it's and it's based on the top five years of the um last 10 years that they worked so if you raise that multiplier right that has a huge impact on the overall pension and the liability that the village owns and needs to pay into the plan the other thing that has a big
impact is one the overall salaries right how many employees you have and the total amount of dollars that you're paying those employees because that has that impact so if you raise you know your the salaries that's going to have that's going to have some stress on the overall pension plan all right we got
something let's see i think you have to put it in PowerPoint or presentation hold on i got to put this this thing in that'll help so that's a that's a big impact when you have the you know the salaries and the number of employees and you'll see that over the years we've increased the amount of employees and obviously salaries have gone up for inflationary
purposes the other thing that has an impact is how the market performs right so if the market goes up one particular year over and versus the next year it goes down that has a impact on regards to kind of the assumptions remember pensions are long term so we're thinking
30 years 40 years and we're trying to average out the average rate of return at six and a half percent now so the council the the board has no say on any of that right we can't control the markets we can't control kind of what happens with the with the the multiplier
we can't control what happens with with the salaries what we can do is is have an impact on the actuary that rate of return that 6 and a half% we can say hey we can raise that because we think over the years that you know we can get more than six and a half% that would have a
that would have a positive impact to the village u potentially where they have to pay more into the plan because they have to meet that higher rate of return on that annualized basis if we lower that that would that would then potentially again depending on how that situation works could it be positive or negative
we're pretty comfortable with that six and a half the actuary or the finance committee that we work with think that six and a half is really is a good number um so I don't think that's going to be changing anytime soon um still have some issues so the other
things too that I will say is when you look at our plan um and you look at over the years how it's performed we're in the top I think 25 percentile of plans meaning the performance of the numbers of the rate of return is really really good um so we're done a really good job
on the investment side um and we'll continue to Yeah all right all right let's try it back is forward right all right so those are the members of the board we thank them for all of their time and and throughout the year they've
get together a handful of times um and we are all paid volunteers so since 2003 you can see the numbers here the market value of the investments have gone from 400,000 to 2023 um we're looking a little over 8
million uh today's dollars were close to $10 million in in the plan you can see the number of participants have gone from 25 to 52 um and that is have a impact on the payroll aside as well all right all this stuff I know
that you can read the things that I want to point out is the employee contribution um it is a 5% contribution that all employees pay into the plan if you look at the village contribution if you do the math that's about 8% so the village is contributing about 8% of um
into the plan for the general employees which is a really good good number and and shows how much the the residents and obviously the the staff um value those those employees administrative costs and investment expense is around 1% um the village pays that so in theory the
village is paying close to 9% of salary is is the liability that the village has um into the plan itself um asset allocation it's it is a very um prudent
um allocation u when you look at compared to stocks bonds real estate and uh domestic and international investments so here's what I was talking about so that top row that total fund it's broken down by quarter fiscal year
to date one year threeyear and so on if you look at since inception since the plan has been created we're in the 19th percentile so that is that is really really positive and we've done a very very good job over the years i know I've recently just joined this this board ben's been on it for nine years ben has
experienced two bare markets he's in his third bare market now and look we're still doing okay so um we're not real concerned with short-term fluctuations in the market i'm going to fly through that a little bit made some recent changes just
more housekeeping minor changes to the allocation grabbing some small caps um but nothing significant there with regards to the overall plan itself um we're in the process of getting out of the real estate um prior to CO it was a good good investment to
be in some type of a real estate fund um now that there seems to be a lot of people exiting buildings in and all throughout the United States the fund that we were in we're very focused in the big top kind cities um and that we've seen some pressure on that so we are in the process of exiting
that again this is where the actuary numbers come through we are a very solid plan um that's where you can see that six and a half% down at the bottom um we are fully funded um we're not at at risk of not being able to make our contributions or payments to the employees when they
retire again you can see 95 99.5% funded um that's an excellent spot you can see the total cost right there at 9.8 that includes the employee plus the cost of the plan itself right around 482,000 um yeah so you can see here the uh our
contribution rate has been very consistent um and that's that is the positive side of things yes it increased a little over 40,000 this past year but the overall percentage did come down just by a hair 28 more salaries
obviously has that impact on that 40,000 um again here's the variability of future contribution rates um when you look at the um how we calculate this there is a what we call a gradual recognition over the four years so if one year is high we will pick the
average out and spread that out over a period of time that makes a very more fluctuating um contribution that the village has to make and we've been able to keep that very very close to where it's not as huge impact from year to year to year um just because of the way things have been been been being managed from all those
four levers all been pretty consistent um making a little change to mortality rate that's uh we're still in a good good case when that happens as well so no concern there kind of what I just reviewed um we talked about that the multiplier 2% when
it has into play and one more so members are eligible for normal retirement age 62 or upon 30 years of service um we do provide disability benefits a minimum of 42% when they're in the line of duty and 25% off and like we said
member contribution 5% any questions thank you council open up for coun any uh comments or questions thank you Kyle i do not have any questions but that was a fantastic presentation
no questions i have one question thank you for your service just as a previous council member and as a resident and financial adviser you really do understand the employees and the inner workings and thank you for volunteering your time when when and if it's 100% funded is it under your purview on the
board to make any suggestions on any changes that should happen after it's 100% funding that wouldn't be our place to make any of those recommendations or or changes our job is just to try to keep it right at 100% understand thank you Kyle thank you and to Ben and your whole committee um having sat on the public
safety officer pigeon board I know um how it can just be a lot of math and a lot of numbers at times so say thank you for taking the time to understand that and looking out for people that you probably will never meet so it's just a great thing that you guys do so thank
you i just one quick question the um state statute that you said we're going to have to come in compliance with do we have any idea like what that dollar amount changes or is just no we're pretty much already doing it and so it's not going to have an impact
good to hear great okay any other council comments or questions okay well I um quickly just want to say I want to thank all of the board members members we're very lucky to have members with such expertise helping um on this board
and tonight I want to give special recognition to Ben Ward he is a highly valued and appreciated volunteer with the village of Dquesta uh for the past 20 years he first served on the villages board of adjustment for 11 years and has
been on the general employee pension board for the past nine years your long-term commitment to our community has left such a positive impact on our village and its employees so we're very grateful for your unwavering commitment and dedication and contributions you've
made to our village thank you so much thank you [Applause] that's part thank you thank you all right moving on to the consent agenda can I get a motion to approve the
consent so move second all in favor i I real quick on the consent agenda I just want to point out um there are some work authorizations for utilities department and those are happening because of the capital recovery charge that we enacted
so I I think I want just want that on record out loud that you know it was tough to do that but it's paying off because now we're doing projects that we weren't able to do before great so thank you uh utilities department as well appreciate that okay moving on communications from
citizens yes we have Harold Taylor harold Taylor 13 Chapel Court i was reminded of background sounds by a letter I got in the mail from Hannah's home yesterday
they were saying how much they appreciate those of us at least that are living on Chapel Court and I'm sure Chapel Circle with the background noise from all the uh ci civil work they've been doing essentially five days a week
couple machines running when they're running their cat or their compact roller everything in the house vibrates so we've put up with a fair amount but you know what i work construction i understand it's just the price of running
machines it did remind me of something that came up i don't know if the council's made a decision on quiet zones yet but when it comes to quiet zones the first consideration should be public safety
not complaints from a few residents annoyed by the blowing of train horns which cover about three or four horn blasts over about a 10 second period 15 or 20 times a day we listened
to Hannah's home construction essentially five days a week eight hours a day mostly for the past two or three months thank God the people in Toquesta Trace don't live next to Hannah's home if not already done I would suggest
that a staff member should contact the FEC to see if there's any backup electrical source for their detectors the flashing red lights and crossing arms my concern is what happens if we
have a power loss in the area due to a severe storm those horn blows are the perfect backup system they don't rely on any electrical power availability another concern is the cost
my memory is correct that was to be approximately 60,000 to relocate I think a driveway village population is currently about 6,100 if there were about eight or 10 complaints about the horns last summer
by memory let's assume more complaints have been made since then let's set the number of complaints at 50 if we have 50 people complaining about the horns you realize we're going to spend
60,000 on less than 1% of our population since last summer several residents have questioning questioned the uh increase in our water bills waste and waste pickup services
wouldn't it be better to use that 60,000 in ways that benefit more than uh 1% of the population i don't know that anyone of the po I don't that anyone wants to see our tax dollar spent on so
few people seems extremely unjust and immoral to me please think this issue from all angles safety and cost before you make a final decision and please contact the railroad i can't do that and
I never tell me because they're going to ask me "What are you trying to do defeat our system?" So we need to know if there's any backup because if there's no backup you're going to get people killed thank you Jeremy i know um maybe you
could get some of those i don't know if you can answer any on the spot or if we can um research some of those and get back to Harold on yeah I can reach out to Harold but I will say that u we don't anticipate any cost with that now we got a grant with FDOT and TPA is going to uh
take on the cost we're going to put in a double arm so uh I know we've reported on that previously but there right now we're not anticipating any cost for that quiet zone but I can reach out to Mr herald and we can have a conversation about those great thank you appreciate that any other communications from
citizens okay moving on communications from council um nothing specific except for all the gators in Sequesta go Gators [Music] okay I'll just go this way
all alone over there i had nothing to I have one item i was uh I finally had availability to attend the Police Explorer uh training on Tuesday night and you know I was I stayed for a little while
and I watched everything they did and from the officers to the actual cadetses um it was inspiring i mean I was I was proud of them i only I was only there for an hour and I was so proud of all the cadetses and the passion the officers had was really impressive and I've been through different
explorermies you know and I feel like and again I guess I'm biased but there was something special there there was just a lot of passion for the village and for those officers and I think we were hiring two of them one we already hired and then another waswise I was giving them my sales page on why you should you know work in Questa uh and it
was a really great experience I think for me as well selfishly I know they're having a good experience but I enjoyed as Well so thank you uh for the village and chief for putting that on i I have nothing thank you uh two quick
things uh one I was uh appointed to Mik um which is a multi- multi-intergovernmental uh coordinations issues forum and so um we had our I had they've been meeting I had my first meeting with them on March
31st and we received an update from the county on the status of the countywide master transportation plan and um we also discussed what Mixx SOP is going to be for the oversight of that uh transportation plan process uh we talked
about kind of what the overall information sharing you know who's going to uh get what information how are we going to share it and then we also are discussing I park's 2.0 O role in the plan as well so I'm very excited to be
part of that committee i think that um you know especially with the uh my addition I think it's very well-rounded representation of the different types of you know municipalities in the city you have the school board on there there's county commissioners on there so um I'm
again excited i'm going to do my part and uh I think it's a good good way to represent not just Aqua but you know the smaller municipalities that you know have very different interests and needs than the larger so um I'll keep you guys posted on on those efforts and then also
I just want to thank um any council members who are active i don't know because we don't talk but then also thank staff for all the advocacy we've been doing this session it's been a lot the session is going to be over before you know it i feel like now um I personally think it's one of the
toughest sessions um so far i feel like there's not been a lot of movement like I feel like in the past there's been a little bit more collaboration back and forth um so thank you because I know it takes up a lot of time it's it's been a lot so right that's
it moving on to standing reports village attorney to follow up with your last comment mayor I would say without a doubt in in in my recent memory this is the toughest session that I ever
remember being involved in in the years I've been doing local government work but yeah a lot of work this year um but it seems like it's paying off there has been some positive feedback from the Floral League on amendments that are
happening and bills that are getting softened and that sort of thing so that's good uh I did want to share some news with the council uh I know you're all familiar with uh AMD Barard who's been my senior associate she's covered
for me here from time to time and then Dylan Brandenburgg who uh handles planning and zoning and code enforcement uh here in the village uh as of this month they have both become shareholders
and partners in my law firm so I'm very proud of them they've uh will both continue to um have involvement in village operations through my office but I did want to share the news that um They're no longer just uh associates
or of council they are both shareholders and partners and we'll be rebranding at some point and uh their names will be going up on the wall and uh so I wanted to share that with you awesome thank you very much tell them congratulations
any questions for the attorney right village manager all right um probably the most uh question thing that I've got is about the AT&T box on El Portal we did get an update from them just today that they
have ordered that new box um it's just it's been a process um but they are in the process of trying to replace that and so we I know Doug has worked uh relentlessly to try to you know get them to do that they were going through you know the corpin trying to re-evaluate
whether they were going to replace the box or um you know move everybody to fiber and so that they they have ordered the box um I'd say you know a couple things to keep an eye on we we have gotten a couple reports about price increases throughout the village and and
contracts you know obviously with some of the tariff stuff and there's a lot of uncertainty i know contractors are starting to increase their prices u we'll keep an eye on that um the legislative session to piggyback on what everybody else I have been in constant contact with Mr approve it our lobbyists
as as early as as today um we are optimistic with some of the bills that we've been tracking with sovereign immunity with the utility sir charge that you know some of those bills have stopped or slowed or been amended um to um I don't say benefit the village but
be more tolerable for the for the village so um this is really the last week of committees and if it hasn't made it out of committee it's very tough to to get it get it through now so a lot of these bills that you know we were very concerned about I think you know we're
able to hopefully we'll able to see some of those die a happy death but um we'll we'll see um I know Jay has been working we had a meeting today with mobility fee and I know there's some stuff going around the county and uh village of Palm Springs we continue to to move forward
with that mobility plan and looking at the fee um I'm in better spot than I was while ago when you were asking about dates the Arbor Day celebration is April 25th starts at 9:00 a.m um we April this Saturday we have a shred it and coffee
event here at Village Hall at 9:00 a.m and coffee with a cop u so we hope everybody can join us for that april 19th we have the boater safety course u that's coming up i think they had a very successful one uh a week or so ago that the police department partnered with the Coast Guard to to put on a boater safety
course maybe the chief will elaborate or how that went um but from what I hear it was a successful event and with that you have my report thank you any comments or questions for the manager thank you thank you ma'am thank you for providing the updates for the bills um for us each
week that's a great help you really summarize it and even add a little bold in there which is nice great police department evening mayor vice mayor council uh you all have my report for the month a couple highlights like the manager said Coffee with the cop this
upcoming Saturday with the shred event with the clerk's office we do that twice a year it's a great event uh 9 to 11 so those of you that have a lot of old paperwork that you want to get shredded please stop by and have a donut because the manager loves that the cops love donuts and uh you know we'll have some
conversations we'll have some flyers out uh you know with some safety tips uh like the manager just said we do have our border safety course on the 19th the following Saturday uh we do have five openings if anyone's interested or if you know anyone and you want to recommend someone we do have five openings still for that uh the first one
went very well uh also did a phenomenal job of putting that together along with the Coast Guard so the civilian firearms course is also this Saturday because we figured we'd throw many events on the same day uh so that'll be going on here
in council chambers as well uh I do want to highlight uh officer Dcasta Detective Dcasta he performed a crime correction through environmental design i spoke about it last council meeting i was glad that one of our residents actually reached out and asked us to do a survey of our home for safety so that was
accomplished during the month uh Councilman French thank you for the nice words about the Explorers you know we're we're very excited about it we obviously uh we love interacting with our kids and uh it's really a lot of fun for the officers as well uh in regards to ebikes since I last spoke at the workshop uh
just to let you all know like I said we're continue to enforce and educate we've made 13 contacts since that Monday the 31st uh we did issue two citations one for a light missing a light and one for a helmet uh during that same time I
we also trespassed two uh two juveniles uh from the country club that were in the back there in in the uh country club area as many of you know uh something happened in North Palm where they would caused a lot of damage so whenever we get quick calls like that we we make sure that we get out there and uh
identify the individuals so uh they would trespass from property uh unfortunately we also had a thank god a minor crash with an ebike uh a young man uh he had his helmet on just lost control of the bike it wasn't doing anything uh crazy or anything but uh
thank God he had his helmet on he just suffered a minor laceration so uh like I said we'll continue to do that and that's my report if anyone has any questions thank you anything for chief thank you Chief thank you thank you nope
just I I share a chief i tend to have ebike well I should say ebikers but bike and teens outside my house pretty much daily night routine and many of them last night they all had helmets on they all had a light on the front there was a comment made by one of the youth that an
officer told them the yellow light is not effective and they need to gear towards the daylight so maybe just some education on clarifying that and then two of them had the little light that our police actually give out the little blue ones um but the size of those bikes
that little baby light was very tiny so maybe two lights just to help them but I like that our officers are helping our youth give them tools so they don't get in so much trouble so if we give them the tools and they aren't using the tools then I feel like we can maybe
escalate the conversation a little bit but until we give them the tools I appreciate you guys getting out there and I see improvements i know there's always the ones that are ruin it for everyone but the ones that are outside my house they're showing good signs so I'm proud of
them now he's got to get home by dark okay anything else i would like to say something um Chief I my wife and I took the firearms course last month and uh great experience so as long as we can continue with that program it's amazing just people that have never handled a
gun before just how comfortable you are at the end of the day you learn how to load a clip and all kinds of stuff it's a wonderful program that I hope we continue for a while and yes last Saturday at 8 approximately 8:35 p.m um there was an eback an ebike crash in front of my house and I've said this
month after month after month there's going to be I saw a young man that was scared to death um the neighbor it was right at the corner of Tquesta Drive and Northto um the owner has not moved in yet but is there working and you heard a horrific crash as did I um we both went
running outside um the but to see our first responders um fire was there we had the truck you know we had the rescue um they were attending to that young man and calming him down uh he was scared he had a big lacerate it looked worse
initially than than it probably was um called his parents they came there uh but our police department immediately had the bike upside down and they were just looking at it to make sure it wasn't altered in any way and just inspecting it and the way our fire department comforted that young man who was scared to death i mean really he was
afraid of getting in trouble from his parents and also I mean he had a look of shock on him um and it was the whole street was lit up with every light that our first responders have so it was great immediate response once the call went out but I'll my colleague here I
will continue to beat the drum because we're not going to be lucky there'll be a night that we will not be lucky and this young man I think he knew how lucky he was uh but they immediate education was happening our officers had them at the street corner and were talking to them you know just in casual
conversation not pointing fingers uh I think they saw what happened to them not doing anything but they're not they are not I can tell you where you find them on Northover in Northover a lot of them without helmets a lot more are wearing helmets but I just want to say to our first resp I got
to see them in action i sat back and I watched them the way they comforted that young man his mother who was scared to death thank you sorry I'm saying this now and said because we have a 12-year-old ebike posi that runs around my neighborhood and uh I threatened my
son so he will never be involved in it unless he's got a helmet and like a full bubble wrap on uh but uh he gets in enough trouble without an ebike um you have my uh standing notes before you uh kind of a busy month lots of meetings had a very productive meeting with water
over uh I know Miss Marjorie will speak on it non-billable water usage uh had a lot of resolution extremely positive meeting uh our gentlemen and ladies have started their self-entanglement training uh if somebody can I if you can scroll to those pictures they're actually
pretty good i'm not sure if you can or not it's probably like my last page or second to last page uh if not that's okay um that's going to ramp up and go through at Palm Beach State Fire College out there and they will do a program
there you go they will do a program called STAR which is self uh what is it survival techniques and rescue it's a great program i've taken it before it's a nationwide program and uh it just basically teaches you to get out alive if you have a problem inside of a building mr french I'm sure you've
you've taken that class a lot of people have um we have our Easter open house this Saturday it should be a very large event from what I'm gathering and uh get there early because I parking will be at a premium so farmers market uh shredding
event all going on tree club docks and whiteall condos and we're working on the Lockxahhatche River Center docks and Whiteall condos and we're working on the Lockxahhatche River Center as well so that's they're going to be there five days um we have some free seats for our people to be in it for being the host
and uh Mr costio is in charge of that and it seems like a very positive uh impact on the village and to keep our people moving forward with their their swiftwater training um I did go down to the Captain Gustin memorial service down
at the Casay Center where Miami Heat play at there was probably close to 6,000 people there for his memorial service it was extremely moving and uh he took his own life and uh it was a very rough day because I knew him personally and if you don't know him uh
and you're in the fire service probably somebody that trained you trained with him and and his legacy is felt he was in the business for almost 55 years and uh I'm trying to look out for our people and have them look out for each other and that message is definitely there um
through our life scan program that we do uh the one and only time you get mental health screening when you come into the fire service is when you get hired and after that you really don't do much unless you have a problem so um it's it's uh it's impacted me multiple times over my career uh and I and I don't want
to see it again so um that's really all I have and uh I appreciate your time anybody have any questions for me thank you councel thank you chief thank you thank you thank you okay last utilities department
just a couple of highlights uh Dover Ditch it looks like we're finally I feel like I've been up here every month saying you know um the permits are going to be issued in a few weeks but it looks like we really are going to get the permits issued pretty quickly and still be on target to bid it um the second
quarter to 2025 which is what I've been what's in the um schedule um the water treatment plant we have the filter media replacement project um Allison put it out to bid and it will be the bid opening is the 16th so we're on
target for that and uh we're uh we got the official loan application for Beach Road phase 2 and we're filling that out uh getting that ready for submitt and uh I going to have to beef
up my monthly report with more photos because it's always really hard to go after police and fire as you know um but instead of pictures this this month uh our uh fine uh engineering intern
Diego this is his last month and we all all are already we've interviewed for our next intern but this is his last month and he's going to give us just a short presentation and I'm going to be timing you Diego um he's got five minutes but he's done so much and
learned so much of the village and I want to uh thank you for your support of having him here um Diego and before he speaks one of the things that the village is a a member of Toastmasters and we've had Diego
attending Toastmasters and so um you'll see that good evening everyone uh major consil first uh let me share a little bit about my background i was born and raised in Colombia where I earned my bachelor's
degree in chemical engineering in 2019 and my bachelor's degree in environmental engineering in 2021 from Lon Los Angeles and in Colombia uh my passion for uh both fields uh led me to figure out that one
of my goals uh that I have is to help communities to get access to portable and drinking water i came to United States four years ago with the purpose to learn the language and I had the opportunity to pursue my
master degree and apply for internship i decide to apply for the internship here because I was intrigued in how works the police sector especially in the city level because it's how works the water sector here in United States we can see
in the screen some of the goals from an internship that is learning about the village and local government while giving back to the community uh some of the projects and reviewing different career paths the first project that I got involved was the vulner vulnerability
assessment the vulnerability assessment is important and essential for the village because uh help to uh get resilience and protect the infrastructure the the public so I get
involved to uh uh to help to complete that uh adaptation plan for the vulnerability assessment the um the village of the questa was divided in three areas uh the project that I was involved is the
welfare assessment and re rehabilitation uh I help to create a memorandum and uh get the parameters for each wells that help us to prioritize the projects in the capital improve improvement projects timeline
uh we can see the spreadsheet that help us to update information in real time like uh I have the the opportunity to work in the field and learn how uh the company do their rehabilitation example
of the RG okay the RGis system help us in the utility department to facilitate accurate mapping and of water stock water and wastewater infrastructure enhance decision making through special analysis and visualization supports
asset management by tracking the location and condition of utilities improve efficiency in responding to maintainings and emergency requests and provides a centralized platform for data sharing across departments one example is the uh pipeline uh review that we use
RGis to update and add information uh special and attribute information in this case we can add the diameter and material of the pipe and we can access to the platform in any time
second example is the store master blood progress tracker that uh we can upload pictures in real time and we can access in the computer in the office to see the pictures of the projects the other one is uh uh help us
to create the inventory to lead and the space in the office finally uh I have the opportunity to participate in AWWA that helped me to uh develop professional uh create a network network thank you and you saw that uh large room
full of paper that's now it's all digital so we're we're pretty happy about that um I did want to just finally mention that the we did a a updated presentation for Dover Ditch at the Lockachi Preservation River Preservation
Initiative LRPI meeting that is posted um under the Any comments or questions thank you i have one quick question and a comment uh the question is I as you know I'm very excited about the CIP timeline schedule that you guys have created going forward and and I don't
know if this has been established yet are are you going to like set this as a baseline and then are we going to be able to see if a project like pulls ahead of schedule or is lagging is that something that you'll be able to highlight for us um we can do that okay
because otherwise we'll have to like keep going back agendas to kind of figure out just So we know if like we're on track the schedule's pulled ahead which is great or if it's you know lagging okay yeah and I think that's something that we talked about with the manager
that if there's a reason why um as as you know I mean I wish I had control over everything um um but it's a marathon and not a sprint sometimes with utilities projects so but you should know if something happens and we fall
behind yeah or pull ahead like we want to know if you're ahead of schedule and celebrate it right and so like I said it's just it's a good gauge for us like otherwise if it's not really in the notes or it's not like there's not a baseline that we're comparing to like we're going to have to go back through
agendas to like wait did this change or are we ahead are we behind so like just like set the baseline and then we can know yeah i want to know if you're ahead of schedule too that that's fantastic and it should be recognized we're planning on being I mean Mal Allison I'm so excited like every day coming in
because Allison and I are always plotting in a good way not like an evil scientist we're trying to make sure that we're keeping um things on track and trying to keep things definitely on schedule or ahead of schedule so um she's already helped tremendously thank
you so much for your support and for the capital charge thank you for pointing that out because really without having that we could not move forward with some of these projects and they're really badly needed yes comment Diego thank you for putting that
presentation together i appreciate it i hope you really enjoyed your time here and we wish you the best on your future endeavors thank you thank you good job Diego [Applause]
thank you thank you all right on to the regular agenda old business number 11 consider approval finally of Kimley Horn's uh agreement for the design of Dquesta Park thank you mayor uh this is this is an
item to consider approval of work authorization from Kimley Horn um to set forth in the professional engineering services agreement to provide 100% construction plans with limiting permitted surfaces for Questa Park as you know we uh we were awarded an
appropriation from the state in the amount of 681,000 um it's actually 900 and a little over 900,000 uh our part is 35% so we from the state we get up to
$682,000 um this agreement is um is all all said and done it would be $22,000 we have uh budgeted this this amount through our capital program so this is not um this is not part of the general fund revenue um and so Mr jonathan Haye
is here tonight he can answer any questions specifically about the the scope that's developed um staff did meet with him we went through the process originally we had 90% plans to um but we pulled some things out with surveying geotech environmental we'll bring
separate agreements back through council through the purchasing process u making sure we're we're meeting that purchasing process but um scope of service is you know design development um site plan preparation and in traffic impact study
preparation um of 100% plans limiting permitting services uh coordination and project management um through the council coming to council means and schedule uh with with staff um the cost of this is $499,755
i have a few comments i think it's more about the entire project itself not just the site plan um and as I asked for some history earlier today just to make sure I was up to date in all the previous meetings before I was here um and clarify some of the resident concerns that I' I've heard and I think some of
them are valid concerns and that's something I want to make sure that our res and that's something I want to make sure that our residents knew and that if we were all in dollars I would like to come back and have that conversation if we were not aware you know we've been maintaining this park for a number of years um you know we've been maintaining
this park for a number of years um with a park with a park that's not in our village which is used by better use somewhere else um but I want to see this proceed i take comfort in supporting it
knowing that it it's sales tax dollars nothing that you and I paid in our real estate taxes we paid some of that when we went out and we bought things uh but it's indirectly coming back to us um so as much as I have said before and I agree with Jason when he had said going
forward not from our adorum but going forward from our advorum but going forward um I'll be a hard no to I'll be a I'll be a hard sell I should say to this evening because of where the monies are coming from and it didn't come directly out of any of our pockets indirectly it did but not directly from
adul so I struggle with it and but I am going to support it so we can move this part of the process forward i think the good thing about what you two have brought up is a lot of that stuff is on our strategic plan that is the next item right finding other ways
for funding um and I know our lobbyist has some ideas that um I think maybe next year or next session I don't know but um Jeremy's been talking to him so yeah that's on our strategic plan so I think uh everyone's pretty aligned with that going forward once design's
complete okay any public comment yes Marshia Nielson i feel like St john a voice in the wilderness again I stand here asking you again to table this expenditure of a quarter of a million dollars for Questa
Park and rethink the entire project please consider the following which may directly impact this project the park does not belong to us it belongs to the state of Florida two bills are now present in Tallahassee what would the impact be if one of these passes one of
them called for no ball fields the governor's initiative last year to expand JD with three golf courses and supporting services this is not a dead deal it'll come back again the governor's declaration that the state will be used crazy to ask a bond issue
for something we don't own and it is not out of the realm all permanent structures would revert to the state in reserves or to committing to a project that to committing to a project that the Questa cannot afford to build or maintain it would be harder to stop the
process to cannot afford to build or maintain it would be harder to stop the process at a later time since so many funds that have already been invested you're throwing good i'm sure you're hoping that the state comes through to just some sort of renovation and then
you're going to have to Questa Park as well and I'm just really concerned about the impact it's going to be on the residents to maintain all this in the future thank you thank you any other public comment all right council can I get a motion or
is there any other discussion so moved all second all in favor i I agenda item 12 consider approval of the 2025 2026 strategic plan thank you mayor uh on March 7th the village council had a planning workshop to review the 2425
strategic plan and develop the 2526 strategic plan uh the plan as you guys see it is is my intent that we did that um improve communication with the development community i um I don't know
if this is a cost one i don't know if we're going to workshop that but I just want to say that um I want to make sure we already have our conceptual plan process and um the way we look at this I I would almost if we're going to move um down
the road of providing something like this like I think a town hall or sharet there was some ideas thrown around that I would I would like it to be at the request of the developers i don't I don't want to mandate it because we already have our conceptual plan um because I feel like I don't I don't want
to make it too difficult for developers to do business here um if we had another layer that could discourage you know good growth and development um and the state the past several years keeps coming after uh development CRAAS
building departments so they already think we have too many restrictions so I want to be careful there if we do end up workshopping that and doing something I would I really like it to be at the request of the developers but we should probably codify it somehow so it's in our code everyone knows it's an option and just have some parameters so it's
just my two cents with that one only one that kind of caught my eye what number was that Molly five if under additional priorities it was number five okay if you look at this cheat sheet Mr painter this is that's the best look at it so you don't have to go through but it is also in your packet as well
thank you i think as you said workshopping it to get those details down and it's this is more of the two-way conversation you're speaking of opposed to the one way I believe and then would the residents be able to um initiate that as well or only the developer
i would be in favor of of the developer being um requesting it like I said I think back and forth during a conceptual plan with the developer the applicant as we want i know the public has their three minutes you know I I do know I don't know if I think it's Jay like he
does he has been encouraging the larger developments to meet um with the nearby neighbors and I think they've been pretty open to that i know we've had from what I understand um neighbors deny a meeting with a developer so um but yeah I would I just again I want to be
especially since those developments that would be really probably up for discussion continue to add more um I'd be careful of that continue to add more um I'd be careful of that especially with how the state especially with how the state's been coming after call
something you said before their structure how we have conversations so we can get somewhere we experienced that with they'll be honest with you yeah I like the idea of making it available as a process but I 100% agree it can't you guys want to discuss ordinance number 0 vacation
rental permit application and section 7 all in favor i I agenda item 14 ordinance number 02-25 first reading making some amendments to uh some of the election
items from our charter as it relates to uh candidacy thank you mayor ordinance 0225 an ordinance of the village council village of the quest of Florida amending the code of ordinances at chapter 2 administration article 5 elections division 1 section
2-234 electronic filing of campaign finance reports to allow the village to opt out of procedures for electronic filing of campaign finance reports when requested by the village clerk also amending division 2 section 2251 inspectors other election workers
to add the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections as being authorized to appoint poll workers for village polling places also amending division 3 section 22 273 vacancy and candidacy or prior to taking office to add examples of residency proof requirements creating a
new section 2-270 qualifications to describe qualifications for candidacy and provide examples of residency proof requirements brian Ein other section subsection of chapter 2 shall remain in full force and effect as previously adopted providing conflict clause severability clause authority to qualify
effective data and for other purposes thank you Keith hey council any comments or questions on this one for me any comment cards any public comment can I get a motion so moved second all in favor
i agenda item 15 resolution 03-25 in regards to the candidate filing fee keith Lori anyone so um our code requires um a qualifying fee to be set by
resolution of village council and um currently it is what set at 1% of the council salary uh clerk uh is that what we're doing no currently it's $30 oh we want we're going to make
it 1% testing the resolution would make it 1% of your I honestly don't recall what your current compensation is as we sit here today but it would be $83 but it would change every year with their increase
the filing fee um has been the same for 43 years i think we're like at the bottom of the Yes it's the lowest of of any example in Palm Beach County well I think we've seen we saw one or two that had zero but that's pretty I mean most
of it it ranged anywhere from zero to couple thousand dollars so I think you know ours at 1% of our council salary is you know I feel comfortable that's a reasonable and not not of the books and the paper and it was $30 for the filing
fee for the for the village and then it was 1% of your salary the