Village Council - Regular Meeting

So wait for the clock to strike. You can introduce.

It's 6.30. I think we need to change that clock, though.

Yeah, let's do it.

Okay, we're going to do roll call. Yes, I'd like to call the December 9th meeting of the Val Harbor Village Council to order. Mr. Clerk, with the roll. Mr. Roll call.

Mayor Salver. Here. Vice Mayor Wolf. Here. Councilman Fremark. Here. Councilman Levy.

Here.

Councilman Sklar. Here. We have quorum. Thank you. Please rise for the pledge.

Other folks were saying that too. So we would like to begin with requests for additions, withdrawals, and deferrals. Seeing none, we'll start with presentation one. Mr. Assistant Manager.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, thank you. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the December council meeting. Our first item is a recognition for a member approximately 16 years, Daniel Gold. Unfortunately, Mr. Gold cannot be here this evening, but we do have a proclamation for him, and Mr. Mayor, I believe you have it, in case you'd like to read it for the record.

Yes, I'd be happy to do that. Certificate of Appreciation. Be it known to all who bear witness that this highest honor, which may be bestowed by the Mayor of Bell Harbor Village, is awarded to Daniel Gold for 16 years of exemplary and impactful service on the Police Officers Retirement Board, Let this declaration stand as a testament to his dedication, his steadfast support of our police officers, and the immeasurable value he has brought to the village. With the gratitude and esteem of our community, we honor his commitment and celebrate his lasting contributions. So Daniel, if you're watching from afar, we thank you for your service, and we'll make sure this gets sent to you. Okay, next presentation, Fountain Harbor Shops, Harding Avenue Realignment.

Mr. Mayor, we've got a couple of guests. Nick Massey is coming up, making his way up. Obviously, it's a project that's very important to our community, very visible, so Nick's going to give us the most updated information. You do have a part of the presentation that's in the packet. I know that he provided some updates, and Nick will point those out to us this evening. So, Nick, the floor is yours.

I honestly won't point out too many of them myself. I'm going to introduce the team. First, I'll start off by saying congratulations to the new mayor and vice mayor. Mayor Freemark, thank you for your service and your time here. Anyway, tonight we're coming to present to you basically what's considered the second phase of the MOT and the Harding Collins realignment project. The first phase is nearing its completion. We anticipate it should wrap up sometime in January, the exact time to be determined. But our team basically meets with the Village of Bell Harbor team every Wednesday, so your staff is fully aware of what's happening on the ground at a staff-to-staff level. And we'll start Phase 2. Phase 2 was recently approved by FDOT for that specific MOT, and I've brought Whiting-Turner with me to actually walk you step-by-step through what Phase 2 entails, and hopefully we can answer any questions the Council might have. Perfect. Thank you.

Before we start, can I just ask one question? Before we start, just one quick question. I'm sure most of the council are aware. How are we going to make up the five weeks that we lost with zero work that was going on during this pipe issue?

Honestly, I don't know the answer to that question. Some time, contingency time, sits within the schedule. Whether or not the entire duration can be absorbed by the float or the contingency in the schedule, these guys will have to answer. Okay. Thank you. Sure.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members. My name is Matt Muyong with Whiting-Turner Contracting, and we're here to give a quick overview of the current status of the Collins and Harding realignment project. So this first slide that we're going through here just shows the areas that are completed in green on the west side, which we call phase one. That area furthest to the left, Phase 1A, that is pretty much completed with the exception of the exit from the shops, valet parking area. So we have that remaining. For Phases 1B and 1C, which is that center portion, that is primarily completed with the exception of the bus shelter areas and a little bit of the signalization, which incorporates the mast arms that are being replaced there. Phase 1D, which is to the right of our screen there, which is the north end, that's currently in progress, and we're realigning the bus apron and all the other items associated with that entrance area there. So with that said, I'm going to turn it over to Jacob, who's our project manager for the project, and he'll walk us through the Phase 2 portion.

Hello, everyone. Can we go to the next slide, please? So here's an aerial photo that was taken yesterday showing the current conditions. I think Matthew went over where we stand with the west side of the roadway, and we're here to present on the median phase, phase two. Can we go to the next slide, please? So this area is broken up into four sections. When we begin work here, we're going to do the drainage installation, where we'll have an excavation in the median there, and we need to close the... adjacent travel lanes in order to meet the FDOT specifications. We went through a couple reviews with the FDOT, and this MOT plan on the screen is approved, where we're going to be installing drainage in the areas highlighted in red, and the areas in orange are where the closures are going to be. So once we complete the initial section of drainage, we will move to the next area, which is shown on the next slide. This will complete the drainage work, and we will then move on to the curb work and the realignment of the median there. And as you see on the bottom right of that photo, we will be keeping that left turn lane open for access from southbound to turn left into St. Regis. And if you go to the next slide, this is where we're going to be completing the hardscape, the curbing, and replanting the palm trees in this area. And on the On the next slide, we're going to be moving to the south side of the median and completing the hardscape work here, where we will have demoed per the plans that roundabout U-turn is going to be removed permanently. And once all of this area is completed, we will be moving to the east side of the roadway, which is a lot quicker The total duration for all these phases is approximately 100 working days. And after we complete this area, we... Our goal is to get the new traffic signals up and running before we remove the existing traffic signals. And then we will have to go back to the west side of the road to finish up those small areas in orange that were shown on the first slide that Matt went over.

All right.

Thank you, Jacob. So just to recap, this phase two is the next phase of the project that's upcoming. We anticipate starting that phase two area between mid to late January of 2026. So I think that's basically it for our slides. OK.

I guess I'll kick us off. I know we all want to dig in a little deeper because we understand that there's some time sensitivities here. This is also the busiest time of year to be driving in Dow Harbor. So unfortunately, that's working against us. But I just wanted to get an understanding. I don't know if we want to maybe go to the first slide that kind of has an overall view. Actually, you know what? Okay, let's stick to that one. When would then the westward southbound lane reopen? And is there going to be any time where that lane will be open and traffic will be flowing without taking the east lane out of commission? Or is it just going to be one thing after another?

No, the traffic lanes are currently reopened to a certain extent. We've removed the concrete barriers. We currently have the temporary drums out there that are being utilized, you know, for the minor scopes of work, the miscellaneous scopes of work, I should call that. However, we do intend to have that area opened up by, you know, the end of December here.

Okay. I don't know because right now I know that the rightmost lane is closed. Like I drove there this morning and I said open sometime after this morning.

Right. So we do have Javar who's our superintendent here as well. Okay.

Yeah, I just kind of want, I guess, more of a timeline as to when lanes are going to open, when lanes are going to be closed, just so I want to make sure we don't end up with a situation where you have two lanes closed at the same time, because that's really bad.

Correct, correct. Go ahead, Javar. Okay. Good afternoon, everybody. Sorry for that. Javar Pascoe, superintendent for the project. So I'm not sure if Matt pretty much touched on everything yet, but as far as lane closure, as you just mentioned, as of right now, we're expected to open up the lane that's currently closed coming end of next week. So the biggest plan is to try to get everything open back up as far as permanent closures in the daytime before the Christmas break takes place. Okay. That's the big change.

I guess until you start phase two then, then my understanding is that the traffic will revert back to the way it was before construction started, where there'll be full, full three lanes open, I guess until mid-January when you start phase two?

That is correct. Only at nighttime, roughly around like 10 or 11 o'clock, we'll be doing our own MOT, as you referred to us. It's going to be a temporary closure while the construction is going on. In the daytime, it won't affect traffic. It will be gone by 5 o'clock in the morning. It will be fully open back up to the three lanes. I do want to mention, though, the patterns of the traffic will change. Now we have widened the road, so it won't go back to as it was. We have temporary striping, but you're going to see that new expansion that takes place.

Okay. Okay. Okay, so, and then, I guess I have some other questions, but I don't want to monopolize the conversation.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Can you jump to the next slide? Or the next slide, sorry. I just, correct me if I'm wrong, but this, the orange is closure, right? The barrier. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

So on the west side, is that closing to one lane or that's still two lanes?

So it's going to be two lanes. So at no point you're going to ever go down to one lane unless it's going to be like a paving operation. That's a temporary operation. It takes place in one night, two nights. You have the full traffic back throughout the daytime. But as far as permanent closure, you are going to have both lanes heading southbound and both lanes heading northbound will be open at all times during phase two.

Okay, perfect. Great. Thank you.

And this, sorry, last question, sorry. Is the current sidewalk, west sidewalk open? No, the west sidewalk is not open. Roughly around 70% of the sidewalk is completed as of right now. We are working, I know Matt and our team are working internally to get that, some temporary fix there to try to have that open immediately after we open up the west side, which is next week. Next week.

Okay, great. Thank you so much.

Yeah, yeah, go for it. of the sidewalk on the first angle. The presidential circle is also here.

The Founders Circle?

Yeah, I was talking about the main walkway in front of the shops. Yeah.

And it looks like... Yeah, Mr. Mayor, one question. If you guys could go back one slide, please. So here, before the entrance to the shops on the most northbound part on the west side of the street, that is also going to be open up? Because that... This. Yeah, I mean...

Yes, that will be removed. So the main plan that we have now in place is by the end of this week, we'll have the majority of that area pretty much paved off. It won't be the final pavement. It will be more of the base layer. We call it the structural base, structural course. And that area, we're going to have that low profile barrier, the concrete barrier you see there, that will be removed and the whole lane will pretty much be opened back up.

So you'll have a drivable surface there. However, at the end of the project, there's still one more lift. We call it the friction course that has to go on at the absolute end of the project. Thank you.

Sorry, before we let you guys go, one last question. I don't know if this is more for Nick. I know that part of the reason why this was supposed to be done at night was to minimize the impact of closures. It seems like FDOT kind of had their way with these lane closures. And it's resulted in permanent closures, you know, throughout the duration of the project. So I've been asked this by many residents if, you know, because they kind of drive by during the day and they see these closures and nothing's happening. Has there been any thought, I don't know, maybe Whitting-Turner, you know, on trying to maybe not every day, but at least getting, utilizing the daytime to work as well when they can safely do that within the closed areas?

I think for certain scopes, well, let's back up to the first thing. Why in the world are we having things closed during the day when we were trying to limit it to nighttime closures only? It basically stemmed from the depth of the drainage projects and FDOT required clearances from the depth of those holes. Because they happen to be very deep, you have to have a certain clearance away from it, which ended up resulting in permanent lane closures that Frankly, the scope of work we submitted to FDOT to do was really a whole bunch of surface-level, moving lanes around kind of thing, and it ballooned into something that was much more significant because that part of the roadway doesn't comply with FDOT standards, so they decided to make us fix it. So we compromised to try and limit the scope of work so that it merged our work with the existing roadway to the best extent possible. However, that added a tremendous amount of drainage work, which is why we ended up having these long-term closures. As to daytime work versus night work, I think just with the size of the equipment that's out there for the most part, I don't think you want that happening during the daytime, because I think the disruption to traffic would be fairly significant, rather than just saying, all right, well, it's reduced by a lane, but people generally know how to merge and unmerge. But with all that additional equipment in the right of way, I think you might have a lot more problems. I think there are certain work scopes that we've discussed and actually have performed, thanks to the assistance of your staff. lighter scopes of work that don't require the heavy equipment that have actually happened during the day and that we're actually doing right now to try and expedite some of the sidewalk work, etc. When it makes sense and it's not a danger to the community, we will engage in daytime work.

Okay.

Yeah, because anything to get this reopened and finished, really.

It's not good for any of us. Yeah. I keep on telling people, it will be worth it in the end, but it's just hard to see the end when you're sitting in. Correct. I'm counting on you for 20 minutes. What used to take two. So I think we've, I appreciate you guys coming out and explaining that. I guess maybe after Christmas holiday, don't rush to close the lane so fast. Give us maybe a week or two. But I understand that, you know, the sooner you start, the sooner we'll finish. But I think it's going to be a big tease for folks when we reopen all three lanes and then all of a sudden... We shut down.

A short reprieve. Again, if any of you guys have any questions, do you want to call me aside individually? I'll set up a one-on-one meeting. I can walk you through any of this if you have further questions. To this point, we've only really, at the start of this job, we sent out a contact email for anybody who had questions about the project or had comments or concerns. So far, we've only fielded one email so far that was answered to the satisfaction of the person who had the query about it. earlier today. So for the most part, it's been relatively uneventful from people reaching out to learn more about the project. Thank you. Sure. Appreciate it.

And happy holidays.

Thank you.

Okay. Next presentation is the Recreation Arts and Cultural Update.

Mr. Mayor, we'll invite Sylvia Flores to come up and share with you the details of what Recreation Arts and Culture has done over the past fiscal year. Sylvia, welcome.

Thank you, Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor and Council. Thank you for allowing me to present tonight. Do you want me to control or are you going to? Okay. So I'm going to go through an overview of our department and what's been happening recently. So just to start off. share with you all our department mission, which is to create and implement programs, activities, and events that elevate the quality of life for the residents of Bell Harbor while also positioning the village as a unique and cultural destination for visitors and guests. So this is centered, everything that we do is centered around that mission. I'll start with our all access cards. So we, hopefully everybody's aware that our Bow Harbor Waterfront Park opened in January of 2024. Shortly before that and since that, we have been promoting our All Access Card, which grants access to the park for our residents, as well as benefits to be able to register for recreational programs, attend our events, and all of those museum partnerships that come along with the Art Access Card as well. So currently we are at 2,655 residents registered for the all-access card. That right-hand column, you'll see the change from July since we last presented to you and kind of has a breakdown. A pretty nice distribution among the different age groups. However, you know, our teen market is still our... key market that we are continuously going after and we're gonna continue to work on that in the coming months. But all of those age groups continue to grow. This next slide is to give you an overview, kind of a snapshot of park usage. So this is utilizing the system that monitors the card access, the card readers at the gates. And so it gives you an overview of the number of visitors to the park each month. But I do want to say, with a caveat, so as time has continued on, a lot of our residents have gotten comfortable with our staff. A lot of them don't use the card at the gate. They'll just... you know, buzz the buzzer and asked to get buzzed in or they left the card at home. And also this is one person coming in who's probably coming in with a family, right? So this is like the one person who used their card, but typically it's not one person coming alone. They're coming with their wife, their husband, their children. They might be bringing friends. So this is kind of a bare minimum snapshot of the park usage. so the next section is our recreation program so this i kind of just gave a very quick overview of the different age groups and the different seasons since we've started it has been a lot of trial and error trying to get a good gauge of the types of programs that people want to participate in and the fees that you know they're willing to pay for those types of programs It is definitely a challenge when you're starting a new department, a new program. People have already kind of established their lives and what they're participating in and where they're going to, whether it's a private dance company or an art school. And so it's a challenge getting them to be willing to try something new. We've been trying some different structures as far as days of the week, times of the week, how many weeks a session is. This last season, now in fall, we made some adjustments to the pricing structure and the days of the week and the times of the week, and we've seen a huge increase. You'll see that, obviously, that right-hand column for fall 2025 shows you that we have gone up 95% in registration since last fall. which is incredible. We're super excited. Tons of people at the park. It's a combination of the pricing structure that we've implemented with the session programs plus the membership program that we implemented for the seniors in the adult programs and the fitness programs. So all of that, you see that in all of the age groups, we've seen a significant increase in participation. So these next few slides are just a couple of overviews. So like in the toddlers, we've introduced some new programs, Art and Sensory, and Tots Music, which have both been selling out this season, which have seen some incredible response. In our youth programs, we introduced an art for youth I'm sorry, Art for Youth, but with a new instructor. That's also a challenge. Sometimes you bring in some contracted instructors. Some of them work, some of them don't work. They mesh, they don't mesh, or they're not meeting the expectations. So we had an art class that was not that successful. We tried now with a new instructor, and it's been going really well. They've been sold out. Hip-hop dance, pickleball lessons, and a STEM class, which also has been going incredibly well. They have... eight kids registered this past session that just happened. And then in our adult programs, pickleball lessons, we've implemented technology classes and we've been implementing, we're starting up a walking club. We tried a late evening session this past season. We're going to try an early morning session now in the winter and see if we get some more interest with that. Another program that we're excited to have just recently launched is a partnership with Friendship Circle. So this is a neural inclusive group that provides a social club for adults. So it's open to all abilities. It's focused to providing this outlet for adults. adults with special needs, but there's also an opportunity with volunteer opportunities for high school students. So we launched this partnership about a little over a month ago. They're hosting a social club on Sundays with an art class and a sports component and then a Zumba class on Monday nights. It's been going quite well. This program is open to both resident and non-resident, but there is a discount for the Bow Harbor residents and the program fees. And then we're also really trying to encourage that volunteer component to get that civic engagement in our high school students. We think this could be a great way to get some more of our high school students involved in the programs of the park and then get them involved in some of the other activities. So our facility rentals, we continue with our facility rentals. We continue to see a lot of activity, a lot of interest. So on here just kind of has a breakdown of the different rentals. The rental days is obviously the paid rentals. The other uses are some of the meetings that we host for outside agencies that are government agencies like the Miami-Dade County League of Cities or the, I'm sorry? The FIND dinner that we hosted, their annual meeting. So that lists those various, and then the total usage days is broken down in there. So it's very consistent. That last quarter of quarter one is a little bit higher because last year, the High Holy Days fell in that quarter, whereas this year it fell half and half in quarter four and the next quarter. So moving into events, we offer a variety of events, our monthly and seasonal programming to include movie nights, concert series, full moon yoga, our signature events like our holiday lighting that we just recently hosted, and then some of our specialty events such as Miami Art Week that we just hosted a various of activations and events for. So the next few slides, and you all have this in your packets. I'm not going to go one through one, but just kind of share as an overview of what we've been hosting. I would love to highlight most recently in September, we hosted that unscripted culinary chat with Chef Ruhama, which was very well received, very popular. And we're finding between that and the chef chat that we hosted back in February with Adina Sussman, I think, We're getting a lot of positive feedback about doing some more of those chef demo events. So we're looking at scheduling, trying to schedule those quarterly. So we're working now to secure a chef that we can bring in the February, March timeframe around South Beach Wine and Food Festival. So we can generate some excitement here as well. And then the start of our quarter one, just kind of an overview, we did relaunch our market on the beach at Bell Harbor at the 96th Street Beach Access. We had our fall festival. This was our second annual fall festival this past October, which grew significantly from the previous, got a lot of positive response. And then now we're moving into our holidays. Over the holidays, we're going to be hosting a sunlit palette with Museum of Contemporary Art, Starstruck, A Night at the Park, which is going to be in partnership with Frost Science, Museum of Science, our New Year's Eve fireworks at midnight off the jetty, and then our annual New Year's Day concert with the South Florida Symphony Orchestra. And then moving into communications, there's a lot of information here. Just kind of wanted to share an overview of what our department oversees. So all of our printed collateral, email, the website, the social media for the government side, the Instagram, Facebook, and X. Text notifications through our wireless emergency notification system. All of our... All of our communications during hurricane season, whether it's with the residents and also with the condo and hotel property managers, special projects such as Beach for Nourishment, Harding Avenue projects, all of those various FDOT projects, we share all of that communication. And then just general community outreach. Oh, I went too far. Sorry. Excuse me, the next slide just kind of shows an overview of the website and it gives you an idea of the top pages visited. No surprise there, building and events are usually like the top pages that are visited. So that's pretty standard. Social media, some of the stats, we've had an increase, 33% in our audience since last year, as well as an increase in impressions, almost 40% since last year. Email distribution, we have an incredibly great open rate on our emails, 52%, which is Amazing. So that continues to maintain throughout the year. And then our click rate is 2%, which is pretty much the industry standard. And then I just wanted to end off, because I gave a lot of information, I just wanted to kind of go over some of the highlights. So since our last presentation, we've launched an employee recognition program. Because we're REC, we like to brand everything. So our employee recognition program is the gem of the quarter, and it stands for Going the Extra Mile. And so we launched that this past season to recognize those employees in our department who are really going above and beyond for the department and for the village. So in the summer of 2025, our gem ward went to Harry Francois, who was one of our park employees. We initiated the local opportunities for blood donations. That was after some direction from Councilman Levy and just talking about different ways that we can promote that. So we've partnered with OneBlood. They've already come twice, so we're keeping that going every other month, bringing them to Village Hall to collect blood donations. We've also initiated local access to licensing needs with the mobile licensing unit. They're going to be back actually... Tuesday, the 16th. They'll be at Village Hall. We have appointments available. Check the website if you need an appointment. We initiated a fall open house event to introduce residents to programs and activities. This gives them a chance to kind of get a hands-on of what we're offering and also meet the instructors, which makes a lot of difference on whether or not they're interested in registering for a program. Launched the partnership with Friendship Circle. We relaunched our excursions with Beyonds Bow Harbor, which is the trips around South Florida. So our first trip was in October to the Whiz, and we're planning a trip now in January to Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens. We launched a quarterly crafting program that we are branding the Bespoke series. So our first one was the painted plate we did right before Thanksgiving. Everyone got an opportunity to paint, customize their own plate, and then pick those up to be able to use them for the holidays. We expanded our event programming with the two culinary chats. We talked about that. Installed a coffee machine in the lobby at the park, which everyone is really enjoying Family restroom is actually Finalizing today they are fixing up some paint But the family restroom has been converted to manual fixtures so that it can be utilized on the Sabbath so it has a manual toilet and a manual sink now The fitness equipment for the Topaz room has been approved and ordered, and I actually got some good news. It'll be here by the end of this month. And then the additional park furniture, which has been approved and ordered. So a lot going on, a lot of good things, and it wouldn't be possible without your support. So thank you very much, and I'm here to answer, happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you. Questions from council?

First of all, Sylvia, the events are phenomenal. I actually attend them and they've been doing an amazing job. The one thing I'd love to see maybe next presentation is just some financials, you know, what we're doing sort of in revenue and just, you know, what things are costing us and just to get an overall, you know, financial picture on the programs.

Okay. Thank you. No problem. Anything else?

I would like to thank you very much. I've had an opportunity to attend many of these events and be in the park a lot the last couple of months. And you have something for everyone that lives in Bell Harbor. And it was something that we didn't know we needed until we had it. One question I do have, and it goes back to the first part of the presentation about the access cards. Do we have any system in place that the card holders have to revalidate?

Yeah, I actually was going to mention that and I kept going. So the cards are valid for two years. So actually we are approaching this first renewal period. We're going to send out notifications. I have not yet because I'm finalizing. So Oceana has coordinated with us. The card is going to work with their gate. They're putting in new hardware in their gate, and they're giving me access to be able to program it. And the hardware is already going in, so it's kind of like any day now I'm going to be able to test that. And so I'm waiting for that to confirm because... Assuming that that is confirmed the way that we plan, I'm going to need everybody to bring me their card, and I'm going to give them a new card once they update their proof. So basically, the card was good for two years. They will have to update, provide a new proof of residency so that we can confirm that they still live here, that they haven't moved out, that they have something recent from the last three months. And then if this... project with Oceana with the 102 Beach Access works, I will take back their card, give them a new card. If it doesn't work, their card will remain the same until such time that I can get that hardware to work at the 102 Beach Access. And then at that point, I'll probably need them to bring in the card so I can swap it. So then the card will work for both the park and the 102 Beach Access, and they don't have to carry around that other fob.

Okay. That's good.

You can keep the old picture. Yes, you can. Or you can get a new picture.

And how will you know, because for the folks that just kind of flash the card and don't necessarily swipe in, how will you know that it's still a valid card?

You're not going to change the look of it? So even if somebody just shows us their card at the gate, we still look them up in Civic Rec to make sure. Because if we have a customer who has an outstanding balance, we have flags on their account. So even if they don't use their card to get in, if they just show us at the gate, or they don't have their card, I'm so-and-so, we look them up on the account to make sure that everything is good on the account.

Okay, perfect. Thank you so much for that presentation. Okay. Any further questions? Let's move on to the tourism and resort tax update.

Sylvia, thank you. I'll take that clicker if you don't mind. I'll just do it from here. Thank you. Good job, as always. Mr. Mayor, thank you. This next presentation is an overview of our tourism and resort tax for the past fiscal year, really. So we'll cover information from October 1 through the end of the fiscal year, September 30th. We presented to you about six months ago, midway through the fiscal year, so this will provide you with a full view of the entire fiscal year. I want to recognize my colleague, Paula Bush, who is part of our very small tourism team and who does a great job with all our efforts. So let me take it away. Okay. I'll say this. I said at the last presentation, you know, everything we do basically focuses back on the Bow Harbor experience. And as I go through the presentation, you'll see that really every aspect of what we do with our tourism efforts and our resort tax really do touch all four of the pillars that form the Bow Harbor experience. Just a high level overview of the budgets. As you can see, we're funded obviously from the resort tax with about 34% going directly to support our tourism and marketing efforts. About close to 35% supporting our beautification and green space maintenance efforts to make sure that Bell Harbor is clean and beautiful. About 23% is allocated to our special events, most of which Sylvia just touched on, and close to 8% focuses on some of those enhanced safety efforts that we have out in the community, particularly on the beach, to make sure that it's safe for not only our residents, but obviously our guests as well. All right. Some very good news this past fiscal year. As you know, we had a record year. For the first time ever, we surpassed $6 million in resort tax collections. So it was a banner year, surpassing our previous record from the FY22 year, 21 year. the post-pandemic year. So we're pleased that we surpassed that $6 million mark. We also had five months that were record highs, which was great news for us, and two months out of the fiscal year that were the second highest in resort tax collections. So overall, about 2%, you know, higher than we were last year. But again, you know, we're proud that we had a milestone year as far as resort tax collections. This chart, I know some of you would like to see it stacked this way, so it's in your presentation. Here's some data that the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau collects for us, and we've seen it before. This is for the entire fiscal year, right? So a couple of different metrics here that are important. The Bureau collects a lot of data, but these that I'm going to share with you, I think, are the most relevant for Bal Harbor. Our REVPAR, which as you know is the Revenue Per Available Room, it's the most important metric used in the hospitality industry. As you can see here, um, Bal Harbor, uh, we, uh, increased from the last fiscal year to this fiscal year a little over 8%. Uh, really, if you look at the percent change between 24 and 25 for every other area of Miami-Dade County, We were by far the highest with Aventura, Sunny Isles seeing about a 5% increase, Coral Gables seeing about a 5% increase, downtown Miami about 6.7, and we had about an 8.2%. Again, you look at the number for 25 for REVPAR, that 42340 number, pretty close to more than twice as much as the next closest area, which was the Coconut Grove, Key Biscayne area. So from the REVPAR perspective, our area is doing very well. The room rates by region, again, we saw an increase of about 2.6% from the previous fiscal year. Again, you look at the average room rate, you know, for 25 at that 657, 658 number, more than twice of what the next area is, which is the Coconut Grove, Key Biscayne area. So that room rate for our region or area is very strong. Reminder, I know the then vice mayor, now mayor, asked about what exactly compiles the Surfside-Bow Harbor area. Just as a reminder, it's all of the hotels basically in the 33154 zip code. So it's our four properties, the properties in Surfside, and the properties in Bay Harbor Island as well. As I mentioned at the last presentation, the Bureau needs at least eight properties in order to form a sector area. So it was the only way that we could be included in how they collect this data for us. And then the third metric that I'd like to share with you is the occupancy rate by region. Again, our area had about a 5.4% increase from the previous fiscal year. Really way more than any other area. I think the next closest area was that Coconut Grove, Key Biscayne area, just below 3%. So, you know, a nice metric for us here in Bow Harbor. All right, I just want to touch upon some of the areas of the strategic plan. Um, you know, again, these are the 5 key areas that were identified in our strategic plan. We've been working over the past fiscal year to really implement portions of the plan to continue moving forward. As far as some of those partnerships, I. Talked about some of the work we're doing with the Bureau, the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. They've been a great partner, continue to be a great partner, working with them on a lot of different initiatives. Some of the new ones that we started this year are some partnerships focused on the UK and France. As a reminder, those were two markets that we traditionally had not focused on here in Val Harbor, but through the data collected by EY as part of the strategic planning process, they really popped up and emerged as very important markets to Val Harbor. So we've been putting pieces in place over the last year plus to do more engagement in each of those important markets. A sister city, of course, you're all familiar with the work we've done with our great sister city in Israel. There are some plans to identify other important opportunities for us, and we're putting the pieces in place to have those available to bring to council for a discussion about which one of those we might want to pursue in the future. On the operations and marketing side, you'll hear a little bit in a minute or so from Greg Mull, who does all our advertisement placements. I invited him to join us so that he can give us a nice overview of some of the metrics from the advertising and marketing campaign over the past fiscal year. He'll mention that we have a focus on some new markets, particularly the UK and France, and he'll talk about those in a minute. um facilitation and development we continue working with our hotel gms as you know the st regis our really largest property here in bow harbor has a new gm who's been on board for a few months now he's doing some great work if you've been on site he's really made a lot of very positive changes i know Councilman Fremark, you as mayor a couple of months ago had an opportunity to meet with him. Mayor Salver, I'll arrange that opportunity for you as well. And any of you that would like to meet with him. You did? Okay. So we're real pleased with him. He's brought in a great team. So he's really doing a lot to make sure that St. Regis stays at the level that it is and to create new opportunities for guests that come to that property. Data analytics, Councilman Sklar, I know you and I have had several conversations about this. I promise you we are working with EY and with the firm that we've contracted with to make sure that the data analytics portion of our strategic plan is in place. The collection of the data is we have 12 months worth of data at this point. They actually started collecting data for us in December of 24. So we are now at a point where they really can put in place for us and have started to put in place for us some metrics and some trends that we can look at. My goal is for the retreat, I'd like to invite EY and that data analytics vendor to come join us for a portion of the retreat to really present the work that they've done and what we're doing. and really have a good conversation around that data and the analytics of the data. And then the event facilitation and development, Sylvia touched on it. The last slide in this presentation will focus on opportunities that we have in the coming year. It's a very important year, as you know, so we've got a lot of things planned to take place. Just real briefly, in our summer months, we take advantage to bring some journalists from our key markets here to Bell Harbor. You can see from this slide some of the fam trips that we had. Of note, we had our first journalist ever to come from the UK. It was a partnership with the GMCBB. We worked with them, and we brought some journalists who came to Bell Harbor for the first time, and we continue to do more, particularly with that market. All right, so some metrics on our website. Greg, I believe you are on. Dwight, is Greg Moore on?

I'm on there. Oh, hey, Greg.

Welcome. Not quite sure where you are, but the last time we presented to council, I kind of walked them through some of this data, but I thought it would be good for you since you're really the subject matter expert on this. And just as brief as you can, because I know you'd like to get into a lot of the detail on this, but as briefly as you can, if you can walk us through some of this information that you've prepared for us.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Ramiro. So we'll start with the first slide that is about the website, and we'll turn our attention to social media.

Greg, hold on one second. If you can try to speak up, and we're going to turn the volume up as well. It's a little hard to hear you. Yeah. Is it better like this?

Not really.

No?

Okay.

Let me try to speak a bit louder. Please let me know if something doesn't come through. So on the first slide, we're going to look at our key performance indicators. Here we are looking at visits, users, and views. We've had an increase of over 405,000 users on the website. last year so in percentages that would be 161% in the total number of users who visited the website to compare the previous year we had just a total of 251,000 The number of visits or sessions, as we call them, here again increased significantly. We added over half a million sessions versus the previous financial year. So that's an increase of 190%. And in terms of page views, we've also increased, in this case, over 166% or 722,000 views. On the next slide, I don't see the slide. I'm so sorry, Greg. I got distracted. Give me a sec. There we go. So in terms of social media activity, we added over 84,000 more followers last year. We started last year at 78,727 followers. Can you try to speak up, Greg? Oh, yes. I'm sorry. I'm as close as possible to the microphone as I can. I apologize for that. So we added over 84,000 more followers last year, and we started the year with 78,727. Our likes and views, but also comments, have performed much better than during the same period in 2024. We posted a bit more. We posted 9% more than we did the previous year. That's $16 post. We've had over 50,000 more likes and over 370,000 more views. The biggest help for that was the additional test budget where we were able to run a few test scenarios that helped us generate more engagement throughout the year. On the right-hand side of the screen, you should see some of the most successful posts for the year. And on the next slide, We are looking at the number of clicks and impressions and some of the sample. ads that were running mostly through Google platforms and two products that we call, I'm not going to go into details there, but it's the two DemoGen and AI generated channels.

Greg, thank you. apologies i know it's a little hard to hear but i think uh with the slides we were able to see the uh the data that greg was walking us through so greg thank you for joining us um i including your packet some other information particularly some highlights as far as our pr advertising marketing efforts i'm obviously not going to go through all those but it was just to kind of give you a glimpse of you know some of those placements that have been made particularly in the key markets that we have Certainly there were, you know, it was in your packet, so if you've got any questions, I'd be happy to answer any of those. I'll wrap up really by focusing on what's next, right? So 26 presents a really important opportunity for us in many ways. We've talked about this before. It's what we're calling a milestone year here in Bar Harbor and in our region. Lots of great opportunities taking place. From a sports perspective, of course, we've got the college football championship. In January, the Miami open in March formula 1 in May and of course, the FIFA World Cup events that take place throughout the latter part of the month of June. If you follow the sport, you know that on Friday, December 5th, the groups were or the countries in each of the groups were announced. So now we know who. which countries will be playing in Miami for that portion of time. So we're ready to start doing some work focusing on those particular markets and so forth. We've got the USA's 250th anniversary in July, and then, of course, our own village anniversary, our 80th anniversary that we'll really be celebrating year-long. The anniversary date is August the 16th. But we're going to start really in January with some celebrations that will last throughout the year to recognize that milestone in our village history. So with that, I will wrap it up. And happy to entertain any questions you may have.

Thank you. Any questions from council? On that riveting presentation? One question.

Yeah. What are we basing, you know, our marketing efforts on? Like, what data right now are we basing the market? You know, if we're doing targeted marketing on social media and all the other things, how are we coming up with that target?

Yeah. Well, if Greg, you're still on, I think you do a lot of that research for us. Paula, I know you work very closely with Greg on that. If you want to, why don't you come up to the podium and, yeah.

Hi, good evening. It's a combination of factors. We get a lot of feedback from the hotels on what are the top performing markets on each one of them. With Greg, we work on trying to find different markets. We send the markets and we target geographically. The biggest increase you've seen right now on the website visitation is because we increased a little bit of our advertising dollars. number one, and we've added new international markets by region, by section, by geographic area in those particular markets, number one. So we have domestic in the U.S., obviously, Northeast, Texas, California. Help me out. Greg, you have the list right in front of you. But in international, the last fiscal we've been advertising, aside from Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, we've added Europe. We're doing France, UK, a little bit of Germany, if I'm correct. Is it still there?

Yes.

What are we actually basing? where we're targeting on? Are we just guessing?

No, no, no. It's top 10%. You know, he uses a big formula on Google. Sometimes it's geographic areas. We've had maps with the reps that are very close, for example. If someone is going to advertise you, a rep in the U.S. will come and say, like, okay, target the CIPCO 33154, the top 5% in those areas. Then he has different campaigns. Sometimes it's by behavior.

No, no, no, I understand. What I'm saying is, We're collecting data from our data people. Yeah. Our data people are saying, hey, this is where we're getting the most visitors from. Are we using that data to target where we want to advertise or just throw in darts?

We are using that data. We're using the feedback from the hotels, and we're also using our Google Analytics that we see our website. Who are searching for? Where is everyone? I mean, on the back end of our website, we see all the cities.

Okay, thank you.

So it's all that.

Perfect. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you, Ramiro. Thank you. Moving on to the consent agenda. I guess is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? I'll make the motion. Is there a second?

I'll second.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? None. Passes unanimously. Next, R7.

Thank you for being appointed as a member.

Oh, yeah. Yes, thank you for your help with that. R7A. It's R7A.

A resolution of the Village Council of Bell Harbor Village, Florida authorizing the village manager to purchase a Gillette generator powered by John Deere diesel engine for sanitary sewer pump station number 1, PS1 located at 184 Bell Bay Drive from MTS Power Products in the amount of $81,400 subject to annual budget allocations providing for implementation and providing for an effective date. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Mr. Assistant Manager.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So the generator at Pump Station 1 needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, it's not in service or operable at this point. We actually have a rented unit in place as we speak. So approval of this resolution provides the authorization for the village to be able to purchase a generator to replace the rented one that we have in place right now.

Thank you. Any questions? Oh, is there a motion? Make a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any public comment? Seeing none, any questions from council? Discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? None. Passes unanimously.

R7B. Is R7B a resolution of the Village Council of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, approving the actions of Bell Harbor Civic Association to enter into an agreement with Gerald Electric Inc. for the installation of dedicated electrical service at three gated community access points, approving a budget amendment in the amount of $55,685 plus a 15% contingency for unforeseen conditions for a total not to exceed amount of $64,038. $64,038, authorizing the village manager to reimburse the Bell Harbor Civic Association for the costs incurred in connection with such services, providing for implementation, providing for an effective date. Thank you, Mr. Manager.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So this resolution approves a budget amendment to the Securing Landscape Funds in the amounts of that not to exceed $64,038 to reimburse the Bell Harbor Civic Association for the installation of the dedicated electric service at three access points in the gated community, located at the North Pedestrian Gate, the Balcross Drive Pedestrian Gate, and the 96th Street Gates. Currently, the system in the gated community is the perimeter cameras all receive power from basically a link from the guard gate. And if there's an issue with that power line, then everything goes out. what this is doing and what the civic association would like to do is to be able to basically provide power at each of the access points so that in the event of any kind of outage or anything um you know they won't be affected unless it's at that specific point um we're supportive of this it obviously meets the eligibility criteria for the security and landscape assessment which is to do things to make the Getty community safer and more secure. And obviously, this would allow the ability for those cameras to be at their most optimal operations. So we're supportive of it.

Thank you. Is there a motion? It's been moved. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing, seeing none. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Oh, yeah, I asked. Oh, didn't I? I didn't ask for public? Okay. Any public comment? Wait, did I or did I not?

No.

I didn't hear it.

Oh, okay.

Any public comment? Okay. Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? None. Passes unanimously. R7C. Yes, R7C.

A resolution of the Village Council of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, authorizing the village manager to execute an agreement with Purple Public Relations for Communications,

branding and public relations services in this in the support of villages 2026 milestone year providing for an implementation providing for an effective date thank you mr manager mr mayor thank you um so you may recall during the budgeting process this year we allocated fifty thousand dollars out of the resort tax as a special opportunity for um all of the things that we know are coming in 2026 um that i mentioned briefly in the prior presentation uh so in october we put out a bid uh we had four vendors respond to the bid um we asked our resort tax committee to serve as an evaluation committee for the process they met on november 17th each of the four vendors had an opportunity to present to the resort tax committee um after that process the resort tax committee unanimously recommended purple pr as their top recommended choice for the village Contracting with Purple will give us an opportunity to really use their expertise over the next year to help us really promote and market the village and all of the events that we've talked about, including our 80th anniversary and, more importantly, some of those activations that will take place that will drive tourism to the village. So we're really excited about the opportunity to work with them. They've got some great ideas. We're already working with them to put them in place. The scope of work is attached to this item. So we recommend the item to you and look forward to being able to work with them to help promote the village over the course of the next year.

Thank you. Mr. Manager, is there a motion? Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion from council? Yeah, quick question.

So are we still using shade for regular PR on top of them? So we have a two layered PR now?

No. So with shade, we contracted with them on two specific activations. One was to help us with Florida Ville last year. You know, we had never really promoted that in any way. And it's such a great event that We wanted to do some promotion around it. And then in the summer, they helped us with the restaurant drive summer programming. So I was able to contract with them because I kept their work under 20,000, which didn't necessitate me coming to the council for approval. So I just found these two opportunities and was able to engage with them. With the dollars that we allocated for this fiscal year with the $50,000, obviously it needs to come to the council for approval. So Shade was one of the vendors that participated in the process. And, you know, I think the reason that PURPLE really stood out for the committee, and I agree, is they've got a lot of expertise in big-time activations. So, you know, we're going to contract with PURPLE for the year. Right. And then we'll see what happens. Shea did great work for us. So I'm hoping to have, you know, the possibility of partnering with them in some other ways that make sense, you know, on a smaller scale. And specifically their niche, as you know very well, Councilman Sklar, because you know their work is, you know, in the hospitality industry. And they've done a great job on that. So there may be opportunities that we can partner with them, you know, around those areas and they can help us.

No, Purple's a great agency. I think it's a great choice.

Okay.

Any further discussion?

Yes. Just what is our goal for them or how will we know that this was money well spent? How will we evaluate the results of this if possible?

Yeah, you know, I always think of Councilman Sklar when he talks about PR, and I remember your days on our Resort Tax Committee when we would have these discussions, you know, how do you measure the return on investment on PR? Our value is like $300 million, right?

Yeah.

we're gonna get a report that says that you know vice mayor wolf so we've talked some ideas you know we've got a lot of uh you know we're very optimistic about what we can do especially with fifa because that's a new you know opportunity for us um so they're really exploring um you know some ways that we can really create some activations in the village that will help bring people to the village and so forth With PR, it's just all about promoting and marketing and selling. So we're putting a plan in place with them, working very closely. Paula and I are working closely with them to kind of create a schedule for the year and be very specific about what we're looking for and how we can really measure the work that they're doing for us.

I think you mentioned one thing, which is a good point. And for me, that's like if our goal was to bring people here from FIFO, like specific action items where we can bring people to our community and do things. To me, that's obviously tangible. I understand some of just general marketing is not tangible. Yeah. If we had some specific things like those, those would definitely be tangible items.

If it creates that opportunity and really with them specifically and part of the reason that the committee and we agree we like Purple so much is because they have that experience and those types of activations, right? So, you know, that's what we're working with them on, so.

thank you are they going to be i mean i'm looking through the scope and are they planning village activations as part of their pr yes and also i see that they're going to be doing like a tastemaker target list are they going to be doing influencer marketing for us as part of their pr reach yes okay yeah Great. Yeah, when the plan's together, I'm really looking forward to taking a look at it.

We're, you know, obviously they know that we need approval tonight, and we've got calls, we had a call with them actually this morning, but, you know, if this item gets approved, then... We'll hit the ground running tomorrow.

I'm glad that there is a scope beyond just sending out press releases because that's immeasurable. And what Seth was jokingly saying, they're always going to go, well, we got you X amount of impressions. So this is how much it costs you. But at the end of the day, if they're doing actual brick and mortar type stuff, I think that's going to be the best thing that we're going to get out of them.

Any further discussion?

One thing, I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor, one thing I wanted to add, this is kind of like icing on the cake for me anyway, is that Purple's headquarters are in London, in the UK, right? So they have a large presence in London, New York, of course, LA, the key markets for Bell Harbor, right? So this also gives us an opportunity. We don't have any kind of presence in the UK through any kind of sales reps or PR or anything like that. We've been working with the Bureau, and they've been great in collaborating with us on some endeavors. But this now does give us a PR firm that's working for us that is based in the UK, which is really – a very important market to us that we're really, you know, starting to engage with. So it gives us an ability to strategize with them and perhaps help us, you know, they can help us really kind of put some pieces in place in the UK from a much broader perspective.

And also to create, you know, partnerships with some of the big firms that, you know, brands that they represent, which is also great because we have the opportunity.

While we're touching on this, I would just also love to see, with all the incredible events that are going on in Miami, and Miami becoming a true destination domestically, we've always sort of left domestic out of it for a very, very long time. So if people are coming to Miami and they're coming down for an Art Basel from New York or they're coming from major cities, we want them staying here and spending here. And I think that has to be the biggest driver of whatever marketing plan we're putting together because that's easy travel. Absolutely. Agreed.

Okay, so we look forward to seeing what they have to, you know, what they put together. And I'm sure there'll be more opportunities for us to engage with them, right and give our ideas and get a real sense for make sure that we're getting our money's worth on that. So thank you both. Is there any public comment? No public comment. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? None. Passes unanimously. R7D.

R7D, a resolution of the Village Council of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, approving and authorizing the acquisition of Motorola APX Next portable radios and related equipment for the Bell Harbor Police Department through a lease purchase financing agreement with Motorola Credit Corporation with a finance equipment cost of $80,351. annually over a period of five years and an annual subscription and warranty cost of $24,932 annually over a period of six years pursuant to source well contract number 04021-MOT authorizing the village manager to execute all required financing and contract documents providing for implementation and providing for an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Mr. Manager.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. A very important item here in front of you today. As you know, we've discussed this before actually during the budget process this year. This was identified as one of our key enhancements. We knew this was coming. Chief Flowers and Deputy Chief Escarra have put a lot of work into this. Our radios are 15 years old at this point. So from a technology perspective, they're really old. And the fact that Miami-Dade County is migrating to a newer platform creates a challenge for us with our existing radios. So this is really a necessity on our end for our officers and our police department. I'm going to turn it over to Deputy Chief. He's done a lot of work on this, and I'll have him kind of walk through the highlights of why this is such an important effort on our end.

Thank you, sir. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members. As the Assistant Manager said, the radios we currently have only allow us to communicate on a radio. The radios that Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office has gone to, and this was evidenced during the Surfside Collapse, they were first utilized there, is a communications platform. So it's going to give us the ability to not only communicate over radio, but leverage Wi-Fi and LTE signals. As you know, there's a lot of buildings in this coastal area that have signal problems, and this will help. It's a tremendous officer safety enhancement. This also gives us the ability to be able to see where officers are in the field real time. So if we have an officer that's experiencing an emergency, we know exactly where they are. And dispatch and even the supervisors and the officers in the field can see exactly where the officer is. We're able to send messages securely through the radio, which currently we do not have that functionality. So, for example, if we have a missing child and we get a snapshot of it, we can get that picture out to every radio that's working in the area. So it's really a tremendous enhancement in officer safety. These are multiband radios, so we also plan to put VHF channels on them. and that's going to enable us to use them on Marine patrol and out on the jetty with vessels.

Perfect.

How many radios are we getting?

35. We've also secured pricing for a year in case we need an extra one or two radios if we add any personnel.

Does that have a screen in it? Yeah, if you press the back button.

Prestige here.

Deputy Chief, and with the 35, that gives us a few extra ones that we have here in-house in the event. If something happens to one, then we're not down to radio.

It gives us spares. Part of what we're purchasing through this is seven years of warranty, accidental replacement. You know, the first year is deferred and another six years we're paying. That locks in that pricing for that, and it also gives us accidental replacement. damage for the seven years. So if somebody runs it over with a car, if it falls in the ocean, as long as we can recover it, Motorola will replace it, usually in a couple-day turnaround. Another big advantage is we currently have to take the radios down to South Bay to get programmed. Once we do the initial program, we can do it over the air.

And these will communicate with every agency?

With every agency.

So there are about 11,000 a radio?

about 11,000 a radio. What we're getting for each officer is we're getting the radio, we're getting a shoulder mic. We're getting extra batteries and the holsters. And, you know, this has voice. Right now you've got to scroll through 100 channels. Now this has a system where you could just say the channel and it goes to it. So it's really an incredible platform.

And 35 is definitely enough?

35 is enough for now. We have secured pricing for an extra year in case we realize we need more. And then we can come back to you with that. And Annabelle Norgeras is the Motorola rep. She gave us two radios about six months ago, and we've had two sergeants testing them in the field, and it's been really good feedback on them.

Is there a motion? I'll make a motion.

Okay.

Is there a second?

One. Yeah, either one.

Yeah. We'll figure that out, Dwight. I got it. Any discussion from counsel?

Anything that's going to make our guys safer and make the community safer, I think is always money well spent, especially these guys do such an amazing job. Anything we can do to always back them, I think we have to do. Yeah.

Any public comment? All those in favor of approval, say aye. Aye. Opposed? None.

Passes unanimously. Thank you, as always, for your support. Use them in good health. We will. Thank you, Deputy Chief.

Yeah. It's more than like a supercomputer. Okay. Council meeting dates. This is probably going to be the most contentious issue of the evening.

Yes, R7E. A resolution of the Village Council of Bell Harbor Village, Florida, setting council meeting dates for the 2026 calendar year, providing for implementation, providing for an effective date.

Thank you. Assistant Manager?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, thank you. You all had an opportunity to discuss this issue at your last council meeting. So these are the dates that are being proposed, and we'll let you all confirm them if they work for you.

Okay. So I guess let's just go month by month. January. January. Okay. So what is your, so January you have a conflict with the 20th. I normally would, but this year I don't. Well, depends when. So January, the concern, okay, so does anyone else have any travel planned in January? Because Okay. Okay, so I guess we have some flexibility with that date. The issue that staff, because I guess you told Ramir and then he told me that January might be an issue. So staff is coming back, you know, you assume on the 5th. So if we make it the 13th, that might not be enough. Well, it won't be enough time for them to get the agenda out by the 6th. So I guess the options are, if we want to do it before the 20th, would be, I guess, maybe the 15th, or the options would be the following week, which would be, I guess, the 27th, the 28th, 29th.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, if I may add, so we had a similar challenge last year. So last year, our council meeting, I believe, was on January the 13th, which created a little bit of a challenge, only because of the tight turnaround, you know, right after the holidays and so forth. So If you consider that week, we would ask that perhaps, you know, there's nothing that ties you down to having to do it on a Tuesday. So perhaps Thursday the 15th would allow staff at least a couple more days, which would be very helpful in being able to produce the agenda and have it out in time. If not, I know the following week at least two of the council members have a conflict. I know Councilman Wolf and Councilman Levy through the Wednesday, but they would be available Thursday the 29th. Well, I'm not sure if you're available the 29th. I'm assuming you are, but at least you're back in town on the 29th. So that would be another option if you want to consider the 29th as an option.

The 15th or the 29th?

End of weeks are very different.

Because you're traveling. I don't know.

Okay.

Well, no, I think the 13th was...

It would make it pretty tight for us. Not impossible. We did it last year, but not ideal either.

I think the way that New Year's stuff falls out this year, I think... A little later, yeah.

So it's a little tighter.

I don't know. You're just... Buzzy, you're not sure that you'll be traveling?

I'm generally traveling. Okay.

Councilman Levy, if I may, I didn't offer this to you before because we were going to have the discussion, but there's always the opportunity to participate virtually. If that's something that works for you on the 20th, if it's left on the 20th, either by Zoom or call, I know that's something that some of your colleagues have done in the past.

No, I mean, you can travel anywhere. School's out. People come here. And what do you...

Is that the same issue for you?

I mean, it's no difference if one guy's virtual or the other guy's virtual. I mean, the question would be if you can't be virtual. Correct. Wherever you're going, would you be able to be virtual? I wouldn't be virtual.

So then we should just keep it. I think we probably should just keep it. Just keep it for the 20th.

Yeah.

We're keeping it quiet. We're keeping it 20th. Okay. February 17th. Any issues? Okay. No. March 17th. April 21st. March 17th, St. Patrick's.

From here to the pub. So you need to bring green sake. Come on.

Okay. I mean, I guess... Are there any other months that folks have issues with? July. Okay. So everyone's okay in May, June? April, May, June? Okay. So July, what is your... OK. When are you leaving? When are you coming back? Or do you have a proposal?

I haven't purchased the ticket yet.

Oh.

But you can go from there .

OK. So then you would want it to be earlier. Or you can participate virtually.

Or the 14th. Why not the 14th?

I have no issue with the 14th. I know, Susan, you have an issue.

Second Tuesday and fourth Tuesday I have my other city. I prefer to be here if I can. There's other people in the firm I can try to get and see if they're available. But sometimes they have conflicting meetings with other cities.

Okay. So is there any consensus on... Okay. Okay. Okay, so let's do the 14th. Okay, and Susan, just I guess hopefully six months notice or seven months notice at this point.

It should be enough. I've had that fall through before, so I'll work on it.

Okay, so July is going to be the 14th. So far, that's the only one that we're moving. And then September, is anyone's guess what they will end up? But for now, does anyone, because we have to wait for the county and the school board to publish their dates? Yes.

Well, Mr. Mayor, what we've done for September is we're proposing our traditional third Tuesday for the regular council meeting. We've also suggested as a tentative, right, they're both tentatives, of course, as the first budget hearing will be September the 8th. Right. Which is listed on your, it's in the item.

But you're right, we won't know until we get closer if there's a conflict.

Okay. Okay, so the 8th and the 15th work in September, as far as you know? Okay. And then October was moved to the 4th, I think, because George had a conflict with the 20th.

I believe he did.

Which date?

The October council meeting was moved from the 4th Tuesday to the 4th Tuesday.

So that means, Susan, you would have to send us up.

I mean, I can do Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, but I can't do that Tuesday.

Okay, good.

27th.

Oh, 27th, yeah, you're right. Okay.

No.

No, the holidays.

And on the 4th.

September 25th through October 2nd.

They're in the calendar, so you can see how it falls.

Is for Susan's point.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Sorry, Romero, you were saying?

I was going to say, for Susan's point, you know, we moved it to a Tuesday. There's nothing that says we can't do it on the Monday, the 26th, or Wednesday, the 28th, right?

Of October.

October, sorry.

Okay. I have no problem with a Monday night.

Would Monday the 26th work?

No, I'm out of town. Oh, you're out of town. Okay. But the 27th works for you or no? We're talking about October 27th?

Yeah, no, no, no.

Oh, so October 27th doesn't work?

Yeah.

Oh. Does the 20th work? 20?

Doesn't work for me.

Oh, it doesn't work for Jeff. Okay.

What about the 28th? We can do the 28th. Yeah.

28th would work for Susan. Right.

Okay, 28th. Okay, so October 28th. Yes, Wednesday. And then July, what was the issue? If we wanted to do it on an alternative.

I think July we, I thought we agreed to the 14th.

I know, but then I guess if we wanted to do it on a different day, so Susan can be here. Yes. We can do it on the 13th or the 15th. That's true. If we're moving it anyway. Does the 13th work for everybody?

Yeah, one would work. Yes. Thank you.

Okay. Either way. All right. So do we prefer Monday or Wednesday? Monday. Monday. Okay. So let's make that July 13th. Which? July. July 13th. That's good.

Monday, July the 13th.

Great. Thank you.

Yeah, this way we don't need to get subs. Okay.

Once you agree, we'll send out a calendar invite for all these dates.

Okay. And November 17th?

November 17th, Mr. Mayor, with the Monday before the 16th, the induction ceremony as required by charter or code to the ceremony will be on Monday the 16th in the morning and then the council meeting on Tuesday the 17th.

Okay. And then December 15th? July 13th. Monday the 13th. Okay. And then, Buzzy, were you saying something about the mini-retreat?

Yeah, she's going away in July.

Right. Because that is in here. I mean, are we officially setting that as well? I guess that's like a no-no.

You know, we added the mini-retreat because at the discussion at the last meeting, you asked us to identify it so that we could calendar. You know, we could push it back. Okay.

No, but this is literally where we'd make the changes. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, we could push it back a week. I think, I'm not sure if Marie's here. I don't see her, but I believe we've confirmed with, well, no, I'm sorry. We don't, we didn't use the facilitator for this one. So, yeah, we could push it back a week. I mean, I'm quite sure when schools start. You leave for several weeks.

So we're looking to leave. I can't remember the weekend.

School finishes. This is July.

Yeah. Yeah. The last day of school for my kids is, I think, the 12th.

What? Not July.

Sorry, June 12th.

Yeah, June, July.

I know, but he was asking when does school end. When does school begin, Mr. Mayor? And school begins, I would have to guess, probably the 25th, something like that.

Public schools would be probably August. The kid moving earlier said maybe August 10th, for all I know. Let me see. August, probably the 25th. Yeah.

And did we have the mini retreat at the end of August, too? Right. Huh? Everybody comes back.

Because the original retreat is in February. No, February.

Yeah, so I'm saying that's... Yeah, why don't we do it at the end of August? What did you say?

When did we do it this year?

Early August. I think August the 1st. Okay.

Okay.

Well, so I don't know. Or the week before, Alejandro, what's your? No, but it wouldn't be, it has to be the week.

Yeah. This may make a suggestion. It's far enough advanced. I mean, the priority here is to solidify the council meeting dates. Why don't we propose some alternate dates for the mini-retreats, and we can certainly communicate and coordinate with each of you to find a date in August at some point that would work best.

Just to let you know, August 10th, the week of, is Canada qualifying. Okay. Okay. Good point.

So that's not a good time. Okay, we'll figure out the mini-retreat.

Alejandro and I are fine. Yeah.

Okay, so the council, so I guess I'll kind of make the motion just because there's some changes here. So we will keep the third Tuesday of every month with the exception of July, will be July 13th, and October will be October 28th. Okay. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and said.

I made the motion. You made the motion, okay.

Is there any discussion from council? No, we just had it. Is there any public comment? Any of your vacations you want to share with us? Okay. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, none. Passes unanimously. Public comment on anything? Mika?

No?

You're our designated member of the public tonight. Okay. Okay, no public comment. Any general council discussion? None. Manager's report.

No report, Mr. Mayor, but just I'll take the opportunity to just remind everyone as we approach the end of the calendar year, we've got a number of great holiday events coming up. Sylvia went through those, so hopefully you and our residents can enjoy those. I'll also take the opportunity to wish all of you happy holidays, happy Hanukkah, and best wishes for a great, healthy, happy new year.

Thank you. And, Romero, do you want to highlight that event that's happening, I think it's this weekend, in the community center?

We do have an event this weekend, very exciting. It's an opportunity. It's one of our first activations with the French market. So it's a vintage market that only takes place in France. Their first activation outside of the U.S. is here in Bow Harbor. We have lots of interest from many people. All of you have been invited to the event over the weekend, so hopefully I'll see some of you there.

Did you want to say something? Yes.

One other quick last question is you talked about it, I think, in the last meeting about the redoing of the artwork and the removal of the one piece of artwork on the beach that we wanted to be removed. Is there?

Mike, remind me, I think that was moved today? Oh, really? The piece on the beach wall? Yoga. The art piece? Yoga pose. Thursday, I'm sorry. It's being moved. This Thursday?

This Thursday.

Excellent. So two things will happen, Vice Mayor. Two things will happen. We should make that a ceremony. The current piece will be removed, and then the piece that we talked about will be in place.

Thank you. Okay. Village Attorney's Report? Sorry, Village Clerk's Report. Your package. Village Attorney's Report.

We're too early in the month to have the data, so it's not available yet.

Okay. Okay, and wishing everyone a happy holiday. Thank you for joining us tonight. Meeting is adjourned.