City Council - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Hey, hey, hey.

It's that time where we will call to order a regular meeting of the Book Raton City Council. The date is April 28th, 2016. The time is 6 PM. First order of business is the invocation which I will deliver. Heavenly Father, we're so thankful for the chance that we have to come back to this place to conduct the city's business on behalf of our residents here. We pray that in this time together that you give us wisdom. You give us the heart of servants and you give us patience so that we can continue to do our best to provide good leadership for this city. For those in our community and here tonight that have suffered loss, we pray that you give them peace and comfort and we give you all the praise and the glory. Amen. If you could please stand with me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy and justice for all. Miss Sittens, could you please call the role?

Mayor Thompson, thankful to be here. Deputy Mayor Growl, here. Council member Ducker here. Council member Pearlman here. Council member Sipple, present. All present. Thank you, Miss Sittens. Mr. Sohaney, do we have any amendments to the agenda? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have no amendments to the agenda. Next item of business then is the minutes. We have two sets of minutes. first of the workshop meeting on April 13, 2026 and the second set of our regular meeting on the date of April 14th, 2026. Are there any corrections or revisions to those sets of minutes? If not, I'll entertain a motion uh in a second hopefully to approve both sets of minutes as presented. Do I hear such a motion?

Don't everybody volunteer at once? Okay, very good. Oh, now they're hearing the good work. All right. I believe I have Miss Ducker in there for the motion and I believe Miss Sipple would count you as a second. Does that work? Excellent. All those in favor of approving the minutes, please say I. I. I. The eyes have it. Excellent. So, we can move on to proclamations and presentations. And we are blessed to be uh to have with us tonight the general counsel for the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics, Miss Rhonda Guyger. Hello everyone. Rhonda Guyger with the Commission on Ethics. Thank you again for having me as always. Um, I've dropped off some goodies. Mayor Thompson, go ahead.

I was going to ask, as I always do, is this require a gift disclosure on our part, Miss Guyer? Um, it does not, and he and I came to the conclusion earlier, that any disclosure should probably be on my part because the value is in getting rid of these things. Um, so thank you for your service, Mer.

Um, really, I just want to say, uh, thank you. I know you have some new members of the council. Um, I want to say welcome and remind everybody that the Commission on Ethics is here. Um, we have really, really moved far past what I think everybody thought of us originally, which was as a gotcha agency, like waiting for somebody to do something wrong and then pouncing. We are here hopefully to be proactive and to answer questions before issues become problems. We want to answer questions from the general public as well. That's not just limited to elected officials and employees. Um, a reminder to everybody that we now have jurisdiction over every municipality in the county as well as all county employees. So, this isn't limited. This isn't a small group um that we now have jurisdiction over and we did just celebrate our 15 year anniversary last year. So, we've been around a while. One thing I want to put forward um this this is a question, a really basic question again since I know we have some new people. I'm just briefly going to touch on what um a an actual conflict is. Is that okay? I don't want to do a formal presentation, but I want to remind everybody that there are three things that are necessary before we have an actual conflict. One, we have to have a prohibited entity involved. So, we have to have a prohibited entity number one that is receiving a financial benefit number two and that financial benefit must be special or it's not a prohibited action. So, what that means is if somebody brought a motion up here, Mayor Thompson brings a motion that says, "I want to reduce, this is not going to go well, but I'm this is the example I always use everywhere. I want to reduce everybody's property taxes by $1,000 a year, and you're going to receive that benefit." Can you vote on that?

Yes. Everybody agree?

Yes. Because everybody's receiving the the benefit. So, it's not special, right? So you might have two of the three, but you don't have a special financial benefit. Our elected officials would be able to do nothing if they couldn't vote on issues that impact them. It's really that simple. The difference would be if you made that motion to impact only your neighborhood of 20 houses, in which case we would have a financial benefit, a prohibited entity, you and that would be special because the size of the class. So there are a lot of uh steps that are in play before we have a prohibited action. Um so we do like to remind people of that. I think a lot of people um take a very simplistic view to this and we sort of take the opposite. You know, we'll go through we'll count houses, we'll count parcels, we'll do all the hard work to make sure that you're okay to move forward on a vote. Um we've done that several times for um for elected officials in Bokeh and we're happy to continue to do it. So, if you have questions, we are here um hopefully to help you before you engage in an act or a vote that you shouldn't have because it did benefit um a prohibited entity. So, um remember that we're here. I have business cards, but I think mostly everybody knows how to get a hold of me. I will leave these here just in case Mary knows how to get a hold of me if you if uh if you need my direct contact. Um I'm happy to help at all times. Another thing I want to throw out there just because I know you do have new people. I'm happy to come to a live training. We do have a video. Um I understand I had to watch the video when I hired on with the Commission on Ethics. And I think that the value in trainings comes from being able to ask questions um and play off of each other and sort of riff off the questions that have been asked already in the training. Um listen to the examples. All of the examples in the training are based on live actual scenarios that we have encountered. So I'm happy to come do a training. Um if doesn't matter how small of a group you want it to be for especially with the

newly elected people, I'm happy to come out and do that. Um Mary can set it up or you can call me. Anybody can call me and we can set that up. But I do want you to know that I'm happy to come to a live training if anybody if anybody's interested in and I have also been told that it's not bad. And one one person told me it was bearable also. So I'm taking those as compliments for an hourlong ethics training. Um but I am happy to do that. Indeed. That is high praise. I know. I felt that it was too. Yes. Any questions for Miss Ger? What was the third condition?

The third. So we have to It's in your book. I did leave another book and it should be it's the very first one. It's under prohibited conduct. So we have to have a prohibited entity involved. So there are seven prohibited entities. Those are listed. I won't spiel those off. We have to have a financial benefit and then that financial benefit has to be special. So it has to benefit a small enough class that it becomes a prohibited action. Prohibited entity financial benefit that is special. Okay. Very good. Any other questions? Nope. Okay. Thank you for coming, Mr. Thank you again for having me. I'm going to leave these right here if anybody wants them.

Well, maybe I I'll leave them on the table over here. That concludes our presentations for the evening. We can now move on to board appointments for which we have none. Next on our list is responses to workshop information requests. Mr. Sohaney, did we have any? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We did not have any.

I didn't think so. So, now we can move on to the consent agenda item nine. Does any member of the council wish to remove any item from the consent agenda? And if so, which one? Seeing none, uh this is the time where we allow for the public to comment on any item on the consent agenda. And if if you are so interested, please stand up, give us your name and address, and you will have up to three minutes. Is anyone interested in commenting on the consent agenda. All right, seeing none, we can close the time for public comment, and I'll ask for a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as presented.

So moved. Second. Miss Siddens, you can call the role, please. Grow, yes. Ducker, yes. Pearlman, yes. Simple, yes. Thompson, yes. Motion passes, five votes to zero.

Excellent. We can move then to resolutions and other business which we have none. Then we have quas judicial and related public hearings. For that we have zip. Regular public hearings. For that we have zilch. regular public hearings and settlements. For that we have natada. That moves us on to the most interactive portion of our program that being public requests. So I have one card here and we will start with Mr. Earl Starkoff. If you can get come up to the podium please state your name and address. You will have up to three minutes. Earl Starkov 3260 St. Charles Way. Good evening, mayor and city council members. Uh first, full disclosure, since council authorized the task force, uh I have considered applying uh and I would like the opportunity for my record of public service uh to be evaluated as part of the process. So, I want to get fully tr out in the open about that. Uh I'm here to speak about the discussions that are going on with the task force. Um, first I understand Mr. Pearlman's concerns that he raised at yesterday's workshop. Um, I have seen two city-led processes that have turned out that way. Uh, one was a lightly controlled limited participation, minimal visibility, and predetermined outcome. I was there. I witnessed it. And it failed when it hit the public. regardless of the report. The second one appeared open. It was well attended, professionally managed, uh but it was ultimately performative. And again, when it hit the public, it

would did not go any further. The common thread in this is the more light of the day and the more participation the better. uh as to option one uh it's frankly too cumbersome uh it could become unwieldy and it needs a weaning out component I support option two it provides that structure um staff also indicated in all the processes that it could be done in one special meeting and I agree it is also very similar to a process we used for the 12 years that I served on the beach and park district in evaluating propos proposals. Each commissioner reviewed the paperwork independently, no discussion, came to the meeting uh prepared with their own rankings. Um those were submitted publicly for the first time without any discussion amongst the commissioners. They use weighted yes maybe no scoring and it was used to narrow the list to a manageable number of candidates to interview. They were tabulated right then 5 10 minutes. A clear group of yes and may came out of that first part of the process. Discussion then followed where the commissioners would then discuss it. Uh if needed, if the list was longer than they wanted to, they would go through it again after hearing each other's comments and narrow it down to the list of people that they really wanted to interview. And that included yes and it included some may because it just wasn't clear subject to the interviews. The t that process really worked very well. Uh it was independent judgment. It was transparency at all the right moments to the public. It was all held at a public meeting and it was efficient. Uh

Mr. I ask you to please your reflects the same balance. It provides visibility, structured narrowing processes and a practical path to uh adoption. Thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Starkov. We appreciate your comments. Anyone else for public requests, please step forward, state your name and address, and you will have three minutes. Mr. Groman.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of city council, Glenn Groman, my address is exempt under Florida statute 119. Um, I wanted to follow up on the subject um of concern related to primarily the downtown area, but in general, that is the burgeoning homeless population um roaming about the streets. And I think that there's some things that you're not aware of that you should be made aware of. and that is there are NOS's that are basically dumping homeless people um at both the Wildflower Park and the boat ramp. By NOS's they're people who have vans. Um I'm a veteran. So I had a chance to speak to to a veteran uh uh sort of I gravitated to them and say, "Hey, how did you get here?" Because he was in a wheelchair. You know, people from wheel with wheelchairs don't roll themselves up Federal Highway. somehow get to the boat ramp in the downtown. So he told me that, well, we get, you know, we pay $25 and we get to get dropped off at the boat ramp. I said, well, why why is that? And it was because the city doesn't bother us. No one bothers us. There's no police presence. We can basically do whatever they whatever we want. Um, so my daughter used to live in Boon Beach and I said, you know, I want you to be with me close by in the downtown in a much safer area. Uh, so she lived and moved to Pomero Proomenade. Well, she can't go out in the evening on on the sidewalk without being accosted by homeless people screaming, shouting, demanding cigarettes and things like that. So I think what the angle to this is um um I don't think it's a it's an it's a systemic problem with the city itself. I think it's a systemic problem with these NOS's that are sort of dumping people on on the street. So I hope you take a look into that. I have a lot of um you know uh concerns about what goes on in the

city. This just happens to be one. I might I might come up and talk about the roadways or landscaping and things like that, but I thought I would bring that to your attention because I don't think people realize. Again, I just I drove by Wildfire Park the other the other weekend and there was a van just dropping people off. So hopefully you can take a look at that and see what we could do. I thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Groman. And I think Mr. Sohaney, we have Mr. Groman's contact information. it might make sense for us to follow up with him uh specific as to those NOS's and we'll be in touch to discuss the matter with you further. Anyone else for public requests? Name, address, 3 minutes. Miss Hackquist Hi, Brianna Hadquist 5710A Coacho Circle, Thaddius the Gopher tortoise and his little buddy Ted the Hatchling. Um yesterday I talked about um some of the bad stuff that um Thaddius was getting some of his hate mail uh because he he advocates for our parks and green space and wildlife and some people for some reason don't like that. But he does have a very positive attit attitude and following I'd like to tell you about uh he goes everywhere with me and most people know him and want to see him before they want to see me. Um he comes to all these meetings. He also goes to beach and parks and it at least one person at every meeting will ask if he's here before I even sit down. um he met probably close to 3,000 people when we were collecting the uh petitions at the library in February and it was great to start some discussion on um parks and wildlife and things that were going on. Um, I learned one thing from avid bird watchers that follow the migration of very rare species down and

they said that some of the species that they follow end up um making their winter home at the ban in city hall and in Sugar Sand Park. I didn't realize that. Um that has also had a photo op for uh a project for Lynn University when some students were sent over to find out what Save Bokeh was and he was sitting there and they wanted to know who he was and what what he was doing. So um we got to explain our parks and wildlife to them too and even got um one young lady to go and register to vote. Um, I also talked about um, sugar sand. Um, some people think that uh, there are no cons to building softball fields at Sugar Sand Park. Well, there are two big cons. First one, it's a gopher tortoise habitat. These guys are endangered. That's their habitat. They live there. Their habitat cannot be plowed up. The second is trees. It's roughly 3,000 trees there. Trees have to be moved or replaced. If the trees there, roughly 3,000 of them were to be moved, it would cost us anywhere between$2 and $15 million. That is just to move the trees before anything could be started. Totally cost prohibitive. The other thing is once they're dug up, where are you going to put them? It is totally not practical. So, please do not consider sugar sand for ball fields. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Hagfist. I think I saw Miss Broker stand up to speak next, which is fine by me. Name address. You'll have up to three minutes.

Christina Broker, 2391 Northwest 38th Street. to tack on to the previous gentleman on Friday or last week Thursday I saw a gentleman on Glades Road heading east in front of the CVS um the second entrance to FAU actually defecate on the sidewalk. That was in front of um both my daughter and I. I had to turn around and apologize to my daughter. So definitely a problem happening. But what I'm really here for is to talk about the future of softball in Boca Raton and why the decisions we make now will determine whether Boca Raton leads or fall behind. Softball is growing rapidly across this country. Participation is rising. Teams are expanding. Opportunities for girls in sports are increasing at every level. And in 2028, softball will return to the Olympic stage. But here's what matters most. It won't even be played in Los Angeles. It'll be played in Oklahoma City at a purpose-built worldclass softball complex because that is what the sport demands. At the professional level, we are seeing the same momentum. Major League Baseball is now investing in the in the future of softball through its partnership with Athletes and Limited Softball League. This is not a small moment. This is a signal that softball is scaling. And here in Boca Raton, we are feeling that growth. Our local programs are full. Our travel teams are competitive. Our families are committed. But we are stretched. Right now, our girls are practicing and playing wherever they find space. Often doubled up on fields across the city. never in a quad complex that they can call home. We are sending our families elsewhere to experience what we should be able to provide right here in Boca Raton. And the reality is simple. We do not have a place to call home. We do not have a space built specifically for softball. We do not have a facility that allows our programs to grow together in one place as a community. That is why this matters. What we are asking for is a quad softball complex. A dedicated space where our girls can train, compete, and develop at the level the

sport now demands. A place where Boca Raton can host tournaments instead of losing them to other cities. A place where families can gather, not scatter. A place where community is built around the game because this is bigger than fields. This is about where whether we invest in our girls at the same level that this sport is growing around them. If we build for today, we will already be behind. But if we build for where softball is going, we create something that serves Boca Raton for decades. So my question is this. As softball continues to rise nationally, professionally, and right here in Boca Raton, will we keep sending our families to Pemroke Pines Plantation, Curl Springs, and Boon Beach? Or will we build a quad complex here at Sugar Sand or North Park that they can finally call home? I'm sorry, but my daughter and the teammates that she plays with are more important than Thaddius. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Booker. Anyone else for public requests?

Good afternoon, council. My name is Patty Dvichi, 420 Northeast 10th Terrace. I'd like to bring uh this to your attention. I have heard that maybe you have already dealt with it a bit. These um electric bikes, I have nearly run over two in black hoodies, no reflectors, no lights. Um they can go 35 miles an hour. I've heard 65 miles an hour. And someone is going to be badly hurt if the city doesn't do something about it. These kids are flying everywhere up walls, across streets, everything. One other thing I want to bring up. The other two days ago, I was laying on my couch. I hear and I got up and I walked out the door and my neighbor next door there was a young gentleman maybe in his early 30s. He had a rifle. Now it it looked completely like a rifle. So I started to say something to him and which would have been idiotic. And I walked back into the house. Then the mailman comes up and knocks on the door. He said, "Did you see that?" I go, "Yeah, I did. What was it?" The kid had I think a pellet rifle. However, I called non-emergency and told them about it. My problem was not about him killing the iguana. My problem was if he walked across somebody's lawn and they had a gun, they would shoot this young kid. So, I did report it. I want you to be aware it's going on. I guess it's just fun and games to them. So, thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Vishy. Anyone else for public comment? Hello, Robert Ducate, 5351 Northwest Third Terrace. I want to start off by congratulation congratulating all the new uh city council members uh who supported SE Bokeh and the efforts to take back our city from the out of control development and traffic that uh had been growing uh dramatically over the last few years. City zoning integrity has been completely lost. Uh please stop approving reszoning and variances to the code, especially reszoning recreational land for housing development. Who in the city staff has the authority to recommend approval of a project that includes a reasonzoning or a variance? Why do staff issue reports recommending reszoning orbearances especially regarding traffic and parking? I think this is uh an ongoing issue that I I have seen and obviously the last uh meeting before the current city council there was a major piece of land that was zoned recreational with the Boker Resort that uh went to multifamily uh development. So quite quite a difference. There's also a piece of land right now about 1 acre that's recreation in the Bokeatik area that's has a proposal for 10 town houses on one acre of recreational land. That's at the intersection of Second Avenue and Jeffrey Street. Speaking of Jeffrey Street, uh the FEC railroad closure and the uh 28th Street and the opening of

Jeffrey Street, uh why did city staff Zach apply to the FDOT for this project 5 months after the beach and park district presentation to the city on plans for North Park improvements, but he did not mention any of these plans in the FDO8 application. It literally looks like false application. Uh putting a four-lane highway through a 70acre park is a public safety issue. That's the proposal that's currently in the process of getting done. The city residents are going to spend at least $15 million from what I understand to put the roadway through. Uh this this makes no sense at all. in the uh North Park area. Again, uh we had several years where we had uh citywide um planning with Miller Lake at the beach and park district. We were promised uh a golf different golf facilities and that's what we would like to see the city support that effort. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ducate. Anyone else for public request? Welcome, Miss Morrow. Thank you.

My name is Judy Morrow, 1305 Northeast 5th Avenue. I was so happy yesterday here at the workshop to see all the things that are happening with this council that really listens to the people. Even one of the staff members a couple weeks ago, he said, "Yes, Miss Mororrow, we do listen. We hear you. We're we're acting. We're doing, you know, things to improve our tennis." So, I'm super happy. Now, you also keep talking about money. And the old council talked about money. Even the new council you're talking about in Florida, in order for them to get rid of the property tax, they just had a big big article about in the two houses in Florida, they're going to need 60%. Three fifths of the people in the House of Florida, the two houses are going to have to approve it. So it does it looks like it's going to be very hard for us to you know lower property tax or not have any. So but the other thing is I talked yesterday about Palm Beach Gardens and when I was talking on the phone with them today but I went there Sunday and saw the beautiful tournament with over 200 children that were little Mo. It was beautiful on their 20 clay courts. But when I was talking today on the phone, they used to have eight tennis courts and because of the demand 16 and then in 2020 they had 20 courts. Also in Wellington, they already have a public uh tennis place that has 21 courts, but guess what? They're adding three more clay and three more hard courts. And so that's going to give them 27 courts, which is very, very nice. and

and relatively new the new courts. Also, there's a nonprofit that is starting, well, it's already already in the works. Um, Hob Sound Academy. This is a 501 501c3. This is a nonprofit just to promote tennis. It It's It's beautiful. They got 10 clay courts, six pickle ball. So, the demand for tennis is very high and I appreciate all of you working so hard, not just the people up here, but also your staff working so hard to improve and give us lots of tennis courts for the future for all these people in the new condos, especially all around Bokeh and unincorporated. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Marorrow. Anyone else for public requests? Last call for public requests.

Good afternoon. My name is Alexandra Abalo 498 Southwest 12 Terraas. I just want to ask um maybe Mrs. Draer because you are the senior here. Can you Yes. you you well um you have all those you know you go Talahasi and all that stuff and what Palm Beach and all the Palm Beach County. I've been uh very aware by example to be basically on the line of cars who drop the kids in the Addison Mesner and they I knock the doors. I knock the windows of these people and there are people who do not live in Bocaraton. The kids live in Deerfield Beach. The kids live in Pompanovich. I I when I knock the door of another lady, I ask where does the kid live? Oh, I just pick her pick him up. He lives in Boon Beach. So apparently we the city of Bokeh residents are paying for basically their kids education who do not belong in the city. So I don't know what you can do with your help. Maybe we can find out. Um Stacy, you live right next by you, you know, your husband is also involved with the city, but I mean with the Palm Beach County School District. So maybe we can find out who really we are giving away the education at this point. And um another point also that I encountered when I was with Seboka, well I'm still with Seboka but I was getting the signatures so many pickle balls, so many tennis courts and I went after them and they go I don't live I cannot sign the petition because I don't live in Bokeh. I live in

Dfield Beach. I live in Pontanov Beach. I live in Margate. I live in Coral Springs. So something has to be done. That's why I can see that the kids probably from baseball they are taking the the courts from the kids from the city of Bokeh and they don't have even the space to basically play and they are giving away the space and everything. So somebody maybe Mr. Sweeney you can maybe find out who really they are. Thank you so much.

Thank I'll take a crack at that if you don't mind. Uh thank you for those comments as it relates to the schools. Thank you for uh undertaking the intelligence and knocking on the doors of the cars that were in line. I'm sure they appreciated that. Um the the school district is in charge of identifying students that go to each school. The city doesn't have anything to do with that. Addison Meisner, like many other schools in the county, have choice programs that do allow for students that live outside the boundary to be educated there, and that's perfectly fine. Um, and I can think of a whole host of reasons why somebody who would be picking up a child that they may not live in the in the city, but their kid is has a right to be there. As it relates to the sports that certain facilities of ours do require proof of residency in order to take advantage of certain like indoor facilities, for example, to play basketball at Sugar Stand, you have to show that you are a city resident. Tennis facility may not have that same level of of scrutiny. For the leagues, you had made reference to baseball and softball. When people sign up to play in those, they have to prove that they are residents. There are some of these teams do allow some of the leagues do allow non-residents have to pay an additional additional fee in order to do it. So, it's not that we're just giving the spaces away on these fields to non-residents. That's that's really not how it works. Um, but that said, I think we can follow up a little bit, maybe get in touch with with her so we can uh have those comments addressed. Anyone else for public comment? Miss McDonald.

Hello everybody. My name is Angela McDonald. I live at 1350 North Dixie Highway, of course, Boca Raton. Um, I just want to say thank you all for uh coming to our screening and our um, you know, our uh, screening and we I appreciate that. And um going forward we have had things that we asked for in our community already happen and from our understanding there's going to be more. So um for those who have not been in our community in Pearl City, we invite you. We have a meeting every third Thursday of the month and we would like to see all those that did not have not been to our community come to our community and you know see you know what we are about. You know it is um the historically black neighborhood in Boca Raton. So please do come. Thank you.

Thank you Miss McDonald. Anyone else for public requests? Good evening everyone. I'm Angela Maisie, 242 Northwest 64th Street, Boca Raton. I'm uh wishing to address the council tonight um because I've been listening to the meetings um online and I don't always have a chance to come, but I appreciate all the lengthy discussions you had. Um, and there's been a big learning curve for a lot of the processes that are required and it's changed some of my opinions on some of the items that have come before the council. So, um, you know, listening to, uh, the speaker yesterday at the workshop for the treasure coast planning, I appreciate that we have this opportunity at our fingertip tips at no cost. Um, I understand that some members of the council um feel like that may not be the best uh position for us to put ourselves in, but I think that's a bit of a bias. Um, and it would be a shame to let the opportunity go slip through our fingertips when it doesn't cost us anything. And there's nothing to say that we couldn't start with them and then pivot later if we need to hire an outside consultant, but at least giving them the opportunity to do the sharetses and give us the um valuable information that we need because I think that um just saying that no development is wanted in Bokeh is a large umbrella when I think some people such as myself would like some rightsized growth and not to see the legacy of this panel find that

no growth leads to dilapitation. So I want to make sure that we are making some progress and you have to have some faith in the other people in the organization that you sit with um and be able to listen and I think that was a big part of what the Treasure Coast planning woman spoke about is doing a lot of listening sessions. Um, the master plan would help a lot with where I live, which is neighboring the North Park community, uh, where we currently are looking at a Jeffrey Street extension, uh, going right through the brand new park area. And so I my understanding is that that pro progress will continue to happen, but I want to know if there's any modifications that can keep that contiguous piece of land going and maybe have it as a bridge instead of building a tunnel underneath the road. So we could potentially have like youth golf at North Park. Uh that's something that myself and others would like to see. Um, and if you put the road through there, that's going to make it very difficult. Um, so I think the other thing with the save bokeh and one one second, uh, voting on items, uh, on a referendum is going to be handcuffing this council and I think that we can come to agreements without having to send everything to a vote. Thank you for the time.

Thank you for your comments, Miss Macy. Last call for public requests going once. All right, we will close the time for public requests and I would ask Mr. Sohaney for folks who had questions we could follow up with them. We have their name and contact information. That allows us to move on to the introduction of ordinances. Miss Sittens, could you please read the title of ordinance number 5784? Ordinance number 5784, an ordinance of the city of Boca Raton, Florida, providing for amendments to the city code of ordinances to create a new section 2-4, protection of city-owned lands code of ordinances, providing that the city council shall not in any manner alienate from the public, lease, or sell any land that is owned by the city of Bocarone greater than 0.5 acre except upon approval of the proposed action at a referendum election providing for limited exception. s providing for severability providing for appealer providing for codification in the code of ordinances providing an effective date.

Thank you Miss Siddens. Who would like to introduce this ordinance? I can introduce it. Mr. Thompson. All right, Mr. Pearlman will introduce ordinance number 5784. Thank you, Mr. Pearlman. That concludes our introduction of ordinances. We can move along then to quas judicial public hearing hearings, variances, and appeals. We have none of those. So, we can move on to city manager recommendations and reports. Mr. Sani, what do you got?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, just to recap yesterday's workshop, we had a large discussion, a lengthy discussion on the community master plan uh and we got council direction to go with a private firm uh and that's an RFP process. So our plan uh right now is to finish that scope of work and and bring that to council at the next workshop to show that timeline of that RFP process for a private firm uh to conduct our community master plan. And with that, you know, the second thing we talked about yesterday was the downtown civic task force selection process. Uh and a few people mentioned that here tonight. And basically we presented, you know, approximately three options on on the way the council may proceed on that selection process. But I just want to point out that since we now are in an RFP process and I'm coming back, we have a little bit more time. So we can open up that to discussion this evening. But again, we've got a lot more time and we have another workshop uh in a couple weeks. So, I don't want to have the council feel pressed that they've got to uh hash that out this evening, but that's just um something we can uh address after my report. I've got a couple more things. Public safety, uh we had Book of Bash after action report. Uh we had maximum uh law enforcement presence there. I had an opportunity to be out there on the water with uh the police department and our focus was safety and uh I think we accomplished that and I just wanted to say thanks to everybody and the interoperability piece was really good. Uh we had a couple incidents and and our response was uh fast uh and uh thorough. The police chief update, we put a a community survey out. I got 700 responses on that. We went through all those. Really appreciate the community participating in our police chief hiring process. uh

we start interviews next week. Uh so we're looking forward to that. Um and then the comment this evening uh sir on the homeless uh I just wanted to maybe recap that a little bit and and I've been here for about 6 months and I've taken a lot of time on this and and really reached out and talked to a little uh everybody really and that's from changing lives to you know St. Gregory's to Palm Beach County um and helping hands and uh I even reached out to to Delray. I was there last Monday for about three or four hours and going through the process with their police department, the history and talking to interfaith groups in Delray Beach as well as their community initiative. Um so I've got one more meeting on Monday with the president of of Helping Hands here in Bokeh. Uh and after that meeting, I've got a uh an afteraction report that I was going to send out to council to let them see kind of my findings over the last three or four months. Uh and then from that make some recommendations to council on, you know, something similar maybe to a community initiative uh or a couple other ideas uh to enhance some of our policing activities as well as our as well as our community outreach activities uh associated with that. So, uh, I'm looking forward to presenting that. Um, and then a couple quick things. Uh, the, uh, we've got a, uh, some we got our chatbot launching, uh, Tuesday, April 28th on our website. That's mybooka. us. Uh, and again, that's chatbot. And we're trying to improve customer service. Uh, so look for that. Uh and then on Memorial Day, we have our annual Memorial Day event on Monday, May uh 25th from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at Boca Raton Cemetery. Uh and we've got a ceremony there. We invite the entire community, of course, uh to attend that

event uh at the cemetery, and it's a really meaningful program uh to honor those who who pay the ultimate sacrifice. Uh, and then, uh, potentially, uh, I put an order in for our new plaque for the Memorial Park side, and I've I'd like to potentially, uh, present that plaque at Memorial Park on the same day. Uh, but I'll have more details next week and present that to council uh, as an option. Blue Flag Beach designation, again, we're redesated as a blue flag beach. Um, Spanish River, one of only three in our uh, country, and uh, that's a big honor there. We've got a small flag raising ceremony on Thursday, May 7th at 1 p.m. for that blue flag beach designation. Uh and then we have the Bokeh Regional Chamber uh presenting to the business community uh at the chamber breakfast Thursday, May 14th. Um and we'll have uh Mayor Thompson there uh honored uh for him to present uh the city on behalf of uh the citizens to uh the chamber. So that's all I have. Mayor uh pinning your questions.

Thank you, M. Rucker. I believe you wanted to be recognized.

I just have a question for Mr. Sohaney. So in the past we usually get our the powerpoints or any presentations. I know sometimes they can't have them. We don't have them in advance but very good especially for the task force because the gentle someone was just someone just mentioned the options and I went into the email and I went into the actual it's really important for us to have that data because that way we can review it make notes and be prepared. It'll make the meetings more efficient. We'll have questions because it's hard for me to I don't remember what the third option was or the second option if I be honest. But if we could have pre the PowerPoints ahead of time or at least a day before so that we can at least look at that. Um I know we got the one for Treasure Coast Planning Council, but we're missing some from yesterday's presentations. That was just more of a comment, a request.

I believe those were sent around they were sent around today. But yeah, they were. But I I think when possible, it would be nice for us to have the presentations and recognizing of course that they could be hold on. Hold on. Standby. I'm looking at it. I received it yesterday. Ah, yesterday indeed. And that would be at 5:24 to 5:20 4:25 in the PM yesterday.

Check it out, Mr. Lucassic. But the point that you make is still a good one which is in advance where possible and then recognizing of course that the presentation can change. It's not you know set in stone at that point. Of course it can be revised but giving us as much as we can a day in advance would be great. I I I agree with that premise. Um I let me address one of the things you mentioned Mr. So Haney, which is now that the the council has chosen to pivot to an RFP process, there is going to be some additional time to get that scope of work done to have somebody brought in to have them be ready to help with the task force. So um I I for one I I it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to have the decision as to the process for the selection of the task force be decided at say our next workshop. I for one I like option two or three. Option one seemed way too cumbersome for what it's worth. Oh, fair point. Okay. All the more reason why I think maybe it's something that we can be we can address at our next meeting. Recognizing we still want to move quickly. I want to continue to move quickly on this, but given that we've elected as a body to push out the selection of a consultant and rather using Treasure Coast, there is more time that's built in there. So, I'm happy to have that discussion. Uh next time we now that by that point we will certainly have uh all of the the slide decks ready for the considering of the options.

Um excuse me Mr. Mayor. Yes Mr. Miss Sipple. Go ahead. Can we also clarify that Treasure Coast is not zero cost. They do it at cost. I think that's that's a fair point and I think that was what they said yesterday was that they were operating correct at cost. Yeah. I believe she left, but the the speaker, she said basically that it was free, but it's not free. We're just paying for it at cost. It's a maybe a lower rate. Thank you for that clarification. All right. Does that conclude your report, Mr. Soy? Yes, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. All right. Very good, Mr. Kaylor. City attorney report.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Council members, I'll be brief. Um, I just wanted to for the public's benefit yesterday during the workshop uh meeting uh of April 27th uh the council had asked that I give a a brief presentation on some of the process for how this council considers and adopts ordinances. And so rather than regent now I will direct the public again to myoka. us. If you click on agendas, you click on the workshop meeting, you open the agenda and you look at item onee as in earth and it has a uh link on the save bokeh citizen petition. So there were two presentations I gave. One was just a general um uh you know procedure 101 on how ordinances are adopted and then the second was a more detailed discussion of the SEOA charter amendment and the SEOA ordinance as well as some uh revisions that had been requested. And so again I would encourage the public uh to to to go to the website for the April 27th workshop.

Thank you Mr. Kaylor. We'll turn now to council member and mayor reports. We start on my right. Miss Ducker, do you have any report?

A few things. So, um, thank you for the comment on the ebikes. I know that our police force is having a training. I try to look it up, but I didn't see the date. I'm sure we have it posted somewhere. Um, there's a lot of talk of conversations about ebike. Uh, if you go to the MO, the Metrop Metropolitan Planning Organization's website, there's a presentation there on ebikes. So, we had a robust discussion um last month at the MO uh meeting uh with all different uh cities and counties and some of the legislation that was coming down from Florida and also there's some federal legislation that's also being um proposed. So, this is something that's in the works and that we're taking very seriously because we do understand that people um are getting hurt. Um in regards to I think it was the same uh comment from Mr. VI um with the pellet guns. You know, Florida is an open carry state, but I would recommend please don't approach people with guns. Call our our our officers. They're more equipped than any of us to handle that. And then the last thing that I wanted to just just set correctly for Miss Marorrow because we do talk a lot about here of education. So, property taxes. So, to give a little bit of an update and then that'll be the end of my report. So right now, as you know, the session opened with some conversations today about redistricting and they introduced two bills, an AI bill and they introduced the vaccine bill. And the speaker of the house said that they were not going to hear those bills because they weren't heard in the regular session. So they closed the session and tomorrow the house will be listening just to the redistricting map and then everybody could go home. On the Senate side, they're just having discussions about the redistricting maps. What'll happen the following week? They'll come back and speak about property taxes. The House rolled out a plan that was unanimously approved with just a scent from the minority party on complete phase out of property taxes. The Senate has a plan ready to go next week, which they're going to go ahead and discuss. if and when whatever

agreements they come to, I think to clarify your point, if the House and the Senate vote next week or the week after or whenever they decide to vote on this plan, uh it would go to the voters on the November 3rd ballot and then the ballot measure has to pass by 60%. Because that's a state of Florida is 60%. So, it's not a complete debt deal at all. Um, I just wanted to make sure I set that expectation because it is going to be a robust conversation next week and I'll continue to monitor and on the May 11th meeting I'll bring another update. Thank you, Miss Ducker. Miss Grow.

Um, yes. I'd like to just talk a little bit about the task force. When this idea was first proposed, I thought it could be helpful and an important part of the process. But how this has progressed, it's I've become increasingly concerned that this may not be the right approach. I believed everybody who signed the save BOA petition is a stakeholder and deserves a seat and a voice at the table. The challenge is that that the task force by nature is limiting participation to only a select few appointees. I've already been contacted by many, many residents eager to serve, many with direct stake in the outcomes, and some of them are very talented. And that raises the question of how we ensure everybody else in the community has an equal voice if they're not appointed. And quite frankly, this process is already creating division in the community. It's making a lot of pressure for us as council and the controversy in the community before the task force is even formed. So, I worry it may not it may become more divisive than productive. And at the same time, we approved yesterday at the workshop pursuing an RFP for a professional urban planning team. It will be a qualified planning firm that can create a public engagement process that is inclusive by design through public workshops, design sharetses, open studios, online comment portals and surveys so the entire community can participate, not just a select few appointees. I realize that we passed the resolution 4 to1 and I did vote for this, but circumstances have evolved since then and I would just like to put it out there to my colleagues to get a sense about how everybody else is feeling and just, you know, let's allow the professional planning team to lead a broad and inclusive community engagement process.

Thank you, Mr. I'll take a shot at at responding to the and thank you for your comment on that. Um, so the I guess my your concern is that hold on, hold on, hold on. Your concern is that the selection of a few would operate to exclude the rest. Is that part of it? I I can understand the sentiment, but I don't think that that is the intention of it. It's certainly not the intention of it. I don't think it's going to be the reality of it. Here's why. The part of the job of the task force is to have meetings that everyone is allowed to come and have an opportunity to provide feedback outside of a threeinut public comment experience here which obviously people have gotten pretty comfortable doing but not everybody's comfortable doing that. So you can if you have the task force which admittedly can't be 100 people big or 101. It allows though by virtue of having the meetings that they have, it allows for other people to participate both there, meaning at the task force meetings, even if they're not on the task force itself, if they're not as comfortable doing so here. Obviously, we we welcome public requests. We make time for it on every agenda, but not everybody wants to do it on a Monday afternoon or Tuesday night. the task force has the ability to have meetings at different times of the day, different days of the week, and to make for greater public input than we may have uh here. So, I I don't believe that it has any kind of limiting effect. It's not like we're giving it to just nine people and everybody else could just stay home. Far from it. It's giving more opportunities for people in my view to be able to come to those task force meetings, give their comments in addition to all the many ways where we are available to hear the the the sentiments of the the community through email or phone or whatever. So, um I I I too have heard that there are many people that are interested in participating. I think it's a good thing. Is it make for tough decisions? I

I suppose. But that's one of those things we're going to have to get used to because there are times where we have to make decisions among either two good options or two maybe not so great options. And I think this is a time where remember one of the knocks on the government campus and there were many was that it wasn't driven by the residents and that there wasn't there was a sentiment there was a feeling that the the the residents were being ignored. I the the idea behind this task force was to give yet another way and show the community that they have the opportunity to participate in determining what these what this property what what the acres in the downtown camps are going to look like the city hall and the community center. I think this is an opportunity to allow them to participate in a meaningful way and it doesn't operate to exclude everyone that hasn't been selected. I want them even if they haven't been selected to continue to participate. You'll find that when we do our board interviews, we have to choose sometimes there's four vacancies and you'll have six applicants. Yeah. Well, so hopefully not hundreds, maybe hundreds. I do think that I and I recognize that there it it it can be if we were to interview hundreds of people that would be very cumbersome and I don't think any of us are interested in necessarily doing that. there is a way for us to streamline that process so as to not have it take over the entire you know government basically while also providing the extra level of participation and pro and and venue for input that it was intended to so I would like to stick with it I still believe it to be a worthwhile endeavor uh if if during the selection process we find that it's becoming too cumbersome I'll leave an open mind on that but I do think it's still a good idea uh for us to to continue discussing and moving forward does. Do you have a another question for me?

Um, I just already think that with the professional urban planner, they're already doing that for us. So, I don't really I think it's kind of like double dipping the necessity of doing something extra, but that's just how I feel. I understand. I understand. Does that conclude your report, Miss Cra? Okay, Miss Sipple. Nothing to report.

Okay, Mr. Pearlman. Thank you, Miss Grow. I I agree with you. I think that as this as information has come forth and it's the process has unfolded and suggestions have been made about the the process of the task force selection and operation, I think it's worthwhile to reconsider this. Uh Mr. Kaylor, in terms of the resolution that was passed, if the council wished to revisit this uh for um potentially to not proceed with the task force and to consider another option such as we discussed yesterday the you know instead of going out and doing selecting nine citizens and going through this process which could create division within the community and and exclusion among residents to utilize the advisory boards that are already in place and have multidisciplinary uh approaches through each advisory board and utilize them in an advisory capacity at large. Um how could we reconsider the resolution to put it back on the table uh to possibly repeal it?

So the legal answer to the question is a resolution can be amended by the council. uh an a resolution can be amended to provide more selection criteria. An a resolution can be repealed if the council uh wanted to. Uh there are a lot of options. So legally you have the ability to examine that. Um the selection process was uh in the resolution um you left deliberately open. If the council wanted to identify ex more specifically how it was to take place, that's available as an option. If the council wanted to revisit the idea, council can do that. A resolution uh adopted by this body, a majority of this body can be modified or repealed by a majority of the body.

Thank Thank you for explaining that. Uh, Mary, can you can you please remind us on maybe you don't have it with you, but what was the vote at the time that the resolution was passed at the last council meeting? I believe um Council Member Ducker had to excuse herself. She had a commitment she left, but it was 4 Z.

No, I I voted against it. So, that it must So, it was a 3-1 vote. So right now given Miss Grow's comments if we were to revisit this uh me and Miss Grow would be not in favor of proceeding. Therefore it would it would at this time we don't know how Miss Sipple would would um her opinion at this moment we don't know it but given the sentiment of myself and Miss Grow that would be a 22 and as Miss Kaylor Mr. Kaylor identified at the last meeting with a 22 vote. A mo a motion does not carry. So I would like to um I would like to m make a motion at this time to uh revisit the task force uh with a possible resolution for repeal.

Mr. Pearlman, I I don't want to get in the way of the deliberation. Uh just to be clear, the mot the resolution 33 20226 which passed 3 to one is a resolution of the city. It can be amended or repealed by a majority of the council. Um so the the 22 tie scenario was the failure of a motion to carry. I know it's a little technical and procedural, but it would need a majority vote to amend or revise or repeal resolution 332026.

And I would let me add to to that, Mr. that normally we would do this through, you know, observing things like due process where we would put it on an agenda, have notice to the community, have them let them have an opportunity to be heard, you know, baseline fundamental due process. I would suggest if we're going to try if, excuse me, if you're going to we're going to try to do that, we do so in compliance with due process. I agree. I think we should proceed with due process and put it back on the table for either an amendment or a repeal of the council in terms of this the task force Mr. Pel. Does that conclude your report?

Yes. Thank you. Okay. I have no report other than to say I believe our the cities uh for the last few years have been doing a night market in San Square which has proven to be a very popular event. I believe the last one of the season is coming up tomorrow on May 7th. So I believe it starts at 6:00. I wish I had those details in front of me, but I believe the last night market of the season takes place tomorrow night. Sanboard Square 6:00, something in that range. And if there is no other business to conduct before the city council, we will conclude our meeting at 7:04 p.m. Thank you everybody.