City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. you Bye. Thank you.

Good evening, everybody. Welcome back to the Boca Raton City Council. We're here for our regular meeting. The date is Tuesday, August 25th, 2026. The time is 6.01 PM. The first order of business is the invocation, which I will deliver. Heavenly Father, we're so thankful for the many, many blessings that you've given to us. Included among them, though they are many, are the beautiful city of Boca Raton, the chance that we have up here to help shape its future. We pray for and are thankful for all the men and women who give themselves to this city, whether in the form of public safety or any of the other departments and offices that we have here in the city, doing their best to make sure that this city thrives. We are prayful for wisdom to make good decisions, wise decisions on behalf of the city. We pray for servants hearts, recognizing that we are in this position not to be served but to serve. And we pray also for kindness and love for everyone. And I want to make sure that we give you the praise and the glory in all that we do. Amen. If everyone could please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag, the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madam Clerk, if you can please do the roll.

Mayor Thompson.

I am thankful to be here.

Deputy Mayor Grau. Here, Councilmember Drucker. Here, Councilmember Perlman.

here council member simple present all present very good mr manager do we have any amendments to our agenda tonight yes mr mayor uh under quasi judicial item 10 a 1150 innovation center the applicant wishes to postpone until late september or early october

Very good. I had spoken to the applicant and they had indicated their desire to postpone to me as well. So I think we can entertain a motion to postpone. I believe you said it was item 11A? 10A. 10A. I beg your pardon. To postpone item 10A. I remember If you were speaking about the late September meeting, that might be a busy one for us. So I think the applicant is here. Are they okay if we roll it into October? Is that acceptable? So what are the dates of that meeting? Is that October?

Anybody know? That'll be October 13th, I believe.

October 13th. Okay. So members, are we willing to put... Mr. Rucker, do you have something?

Yeah, October 13 is also a combined meeting. Just keep note of that.

A.K.A. a marathon. Congratulations. If it's the will of the body, I'll entertain a motion to postpone item 10A, and I think it's all of 10A, yeah, to October 13th meeting. Is there such a motion?

So moved. Second.

Very good. Any further discussion? If not, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. VERY GOOD ALL RIGHT ITEM 10A WE'LL SEE YOU BACK ON OCTOBER 13TH ANY OTHER AMENDMENTS TO THE AGENDA MR MANAGER NO MR MAYOR OKAY THEN WE CAN MOVE ON TO LET'S SEE HERE WE HAVE A COUPLE SETS OF MINUTES FOR APPROVAL THE WORKSHOP MEETING MINUTES FROM JULY 27TH AND THE MINUTES FROM OUR REGULAR MEETING ON JULY 28TH ARE THERE ANY REVISIONS OR CORRECTIONS TO THESE MINUTES IF NOT I'LL ENTERTAIN A MOTION TO APPROVE THEM AS PRESENTED SO MOVED Very good thank you miss simple all those in favor please say aye aye aye all right the minutes are approved next we move to proclamations and presentations we're going to be listening or hearing and from our senators in just a moment but before we do that we have a special presentation something new for us here at the city council a few months ago I had the idea of having recognition given out to folks in our community, in our city, city employees that do something exceptional. And a lot of times that means doing what can be viewed sometimes as mundane work, but doing it in a consistent way, doing it in a way that really does work to improve our city. And I am pleased to report that we have more than just that here tonight, because the first of what I'm gonna introduce as a series of mayor's MVPs is here tonight. And it's a young man who did something pretty remarkable just this last week. We everybody was they've been paying attention, saw that there was a plane that landed in the ocean just off of Boca Raton Beach just last week. And the story, as it was reported during, you know, on national news, by the way, tended to highlight the pilot and the safe landing that she was able to make right off of our shore. But mentioned in that story was the fact that a Boca Raton ocean rescue officer made it out to her several hundred yards in just one minute's time and was able to help get her safely to shore when she was able to land the plane just off our beach. That ocean rescue personnel is significantly worthy, I believe, of recognition. And that's why we're so honored to have Palmer Smith here today with us to receive, I believe, the first mayor's MVP. Here's how I see it happening. pilot did was able to make to land safely and that was a good thing it garnered significant media attention but palmer was there to make sure that she herself was safe and got out there in seconds in order to ensure her safety when he showed up to work that day he did not know what he was going to encounter but he was in a place to help this woman and he did so swiftly and i think we can all be glad that we have people like Palmer out there protecting our city day in and day out. And it was his instinct to step up and be there when someone needed it. And that I think we can all say is what public service is all about. So, Palmer, we wanted to recognize you and thank you for your quick response, your professionalism, and for representing the very, very best of what the city of Boca Raton is all about. So it is my honor to recognize you, Palmer Smith, as the mayor's MVP. Let's all give him a round of applause.

Amen.

thank you all for that we can move on now to an important legislative update because today we have our two state senators senator lori berman and senator tina polsky so please step on up and the floor is yours ladies

OK, good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members and friends and neighbors. Both of us do live in Boca Raton, so we're happy to be here with you. So we finished session a little late this year. Again, we didn't do our budget during the 60 day session and we had to go back and we did about $115 billion budget. And I am happy to report we did have one budget item for the city of Boca Raton for Boca Raton drinking water transmission and distribution for $375,000. So very happy to report that the city will be getting that money for drinking water. when I do these reports I like to talk to you a little bit about what was done on preemption because as as all you know and as many of you know preemption is when the state says that we are going to govern a specific area and that you as the local government are prohibited from having any regulations in that area unfortunately this year there was a lot of preemption I worked very hard with the League of Cities and the League of counties and it was like whack-a-mole for them they were you know always different proposals coming up all the time and And we worked hard to try and make them a little better, but there were a significant number. So a couple of the things that you should be aware of. You can't regulate gas-powered lawn blowers in any manner different than you would regulate any other lawn blower. You can't pass any, you can't fund, promote, or take official action relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion. So that also means, for instance, like we raised the question, could a city have a St. Patrick's Day parade because that's only favoring one particular group. So as you do programming, you need to ask your attorney if it falls within that exemption, and if you, do it incorrectly, residents are allowed to bring legal action against local governments that violate that provision. So you need to be very careful about what you do with respect to that. The good news is, for you, is that the governor did veto the bill that was gonna change the sovereign immunity limits. So for now, the sovereign immunity limits remain the same that they have been as always. I wouldn't count on that forever. This continues to be an issue that is going on, and you've had the same sovereign immunity limits for many, many years, and they could be potentially a little bit low, so it's something that you need to be prepared for. There are some new controls over local land planning and development. There's some new timelines that you're going to have to work with, limiting your ability to request additional information when people are asking for building permits. And there are some automatic approvals if deadlines are missed. there's another bill that says that you can't adopt or implement any policies that attempt to achieve net zero on greenhouse gas admissions and um finally there was a bill that says that i don't have the exact specific number of it but it said something to the effect that you will have to do an exercise of how it would be if you cut 10% of your budget. You don't have to actually cut 10% of your budget, but you will have to do that exercise. So as you can tell from my presentation, there was quite a lot of preemption bills. I am very, a little melancholy here today. This is my last term in the Florida legislature. I've been in the legislature for 16 years, eight in the House, eight in the Senate. We do have term limits, so I will be done in November. But it's been my honor and privilege to represent the city of Boca Raton, and I'm sure that you will continue to have great representation. Not my colleague, but. But you will continue to have great representation. And I will let my colleague, Senator Polsky, talk a little bit more about something that's on every citizen's mind right now.

Thank you so much, Lori, and thank you so much for your incredible service. Sixteen years is quite a sacrifice. For those of you who go up to Tallahassee, it is not easy. I highly recommend that you go, especially for the new people, to see what goes on. They do control an awful lot of what happens down here. and that kind of leads to my decision. I served eight years. The last six have represented the city of Boca Raton, and I have chosen not to run for reelection. I hope to continue to be involved in some way, but we'll see what the future holds. So you will have two new senators after November. By the way, for those who don't know, we separate focus south and north mine is south of glades into broward county and senator bermans is north of glades into more of palm beach and western palm beach county so it's it's been an honor and a pleasure and you know i guess this will be my last presentation to all of you i first want to talk about an appropriation that i did for the Boca high robotics team the apparently the teacher was spending his own money to get some You know the supplies needed and so we were able to get three hundred fifty thousand dollars for this robotics team I hope that we will be doing a check presentation to them, but we haven't scheduled that yet So that's really exciting news for for Boca high and you know sometimes we we get to bring fun stuff back to the community. But speaking of not fun stuff, the ultimate preemption is coming in the form of a ballot initiative that everyone here will have to vote on November 3rd, Amendment 3, which is a drastic change to the way property taxes are calculated and collected and to what the city can take in. the way that the ballot language has been changed it's been improved substantially after court hearings after they were required to but what it does essentially is it raises the homestead exemption from 50 000 to 125 000 the first year and then the year after that 250 000 and then it's open-ended as to how much it could be raised by the legislature so much of even what even if you vote if you vote for this you have no idea what the legislature is going to do with it A lot depends on who wins the gubernatorial. A lot depends on what this legislature does before the new governor is sworn in and implementing bill. The way that they have treated local government, I wouldn't want to put that kind of power into their hands. I think one of the worst things about this amendment is the power shift to Tallahassee. It's taking away your control of how you can spend the money and how much money you are able to collect. this is not people might look at this and say wow I'm going to save a couple thousand dollars on my property tax this is a tax shift make no mistake about it that you will pay for fees you will pay for increased millage it might be increased millage to commercial properties which in turn as consumers will raise your the cost of goods. Renters will be paying quite a brunt of this in order to make up for what's lost. We choose to live in Boca Raton because it is a beautiful city, it is safe, you all take such good care of it, the police, the firefighters, the EMS, the parks, the roads, the libraries, every single thing is in jeopardy. You might think that public safety is covered because it's mentioned in the amendment that the city can or is required to spend money on it, but not the quantity. It doesn't affect how much money you have and there's no doubt that there will have to be cuts to services. One thing that people don't really think about is garbage collection. What if that was cut to every other week? What if you had to pay an extra fee for it? I've had the opportunity to tour the drinking water facility that you all have that does such great work to keep us safe. What happens to cuts for that? What happens to cuts for staff for permitting, for getting projects done? There is so much that is on the table and it's a massive, massive cut that will happen. So I plead with everyone to study this, take a look, do your own research. Don't be fooled by a small tax break on your home when you can pay for this in other areas. And the other really shocking thing is you'll be changing the actual constitution. So if there's a mistake, if it doesn't work out right, if you all are scrambling and having a really hard time with how much less money you have to run the city, it can't be fixed. There's no way there's gonna be another ballot initiative the next year to increase your taxes. So this is very permanent. This was done in a two-day special session with no fiscal impact, no financial analysis. It is up to the legislature when we put something on the ballot for it to be the best product that it can be. And this is hardly the best product that could be. There were other proposals that went through the legislature during the session. Not one of those was adopted. There was no debate on this. There was no outside commentary. There was no expert analysis. It was just thrown at us in a two-day special session. And now they just expect the voters to make the decision. So I urge all of you to please think very long and hard about this. I urge you to vote no on this amendment. And I promise you that property tax reform will be looked at by whoever is next in the legislature or in the governor's office. There are things that we can do that make sense, that have analysis, that are well thought out, that we can reform some issues that we have in the property tax system, but not this complete overhaul and a change to our constitution, which is a dangerous road to go down. So I hope that all of you on the council are out there talking about this. It's really important. Even if you aren't taking a position, just explain the facts. Explain exactly how much less money you're going to have. What services are you going to cut? If you're in favor of it, then tell us what services you're going to cut. if you don't want to take a position just want to say the facts again what services are going to be cut because there's no doubt when billions of dollars are being cut from the whole state that you will have to cut services so i thank you for your attention to this very serious matter this is one of the most consequential amendments you will ever vote on and i urge everyone to please do their own research and vote now and that is it for me yeah all right

thank you senators do we have any questions for our yes go ahead miss trucker so thank you very much for being here um before i do my conclusion remarks so just staying on the same topic of property taxes we've had you know we had a lot of discussions by the way this is a governor initiative and he now has moved away from this initiative so whatever that informs the public i sit here every meeting and i give a little property tax update but um a lot of the the fire um you know and the counties and throughout in the state and police have come against Amendment 3 I think it's important to continue to educate the public but the person that initiated this entire thing was a governor and he is not going to take a position on Amendment 3 so you can do your own research but that is factual the other thing that I wanted to say that Senator Polsky alluded to is that next year the Commission was going to get together they beat every 20 years to review property taxes and that would have been the way that you do that. You get people from throughout the state and they sit and they look at property taxes the last 20 years and that's when you make consensual decisions and conscious decisions on property tax reform. So I agree with you, this is a property tax shift to the consumer, to the business and it's something that we need to really keep in mind. We know, I sat on a panel just last night where in the county there are going to be significant cuts and those cuts are going to come in various forms if you're not in the city of boca raton and we have also put out mr service and his team has done a tremendous job with our little fact sheet it's it's online and he also did a presentation on the impacts it will have to our city the other thing that's also of concern that senator polsky you mentioned was the open-ended and the two months of the implementation bill that we haven't seen and And when you go to that website today, you're able to even put in up to 500,000. So we're working off this 250,000 number, but we don't know what the implementation bill is. Normally, when you pass a bill, there has to be a bill plus what the implementation bill is. So again, another unknown. that we don't know what's going to happen. And there's going to be a change in governor. There's going to be change in leadership. So that's something else to keep in mind. So and again, you know, I know that Mr. Sohaini and Mr. Service did a presentation this week. A lot of property tax discussions were had. And, you know, I've thought of maybe even possibly doing my own property tax kind of town hall. I've been really involved. I've been speaking throughout the county on this matter. And I think it's something for you to keep ahead of do we want some kind of reform yes but we want it in a very methodical way you cannot take a full funding source without a replacement somebody has to pay for it or you're going to have to cut services that's the way I explain it the most basic way so thank you for that my other comments is this is my last legislative update as everyone knows I'll be transitioning in 78 days And I wanted to thank you for all your guidance, mentorship, always having an open door policy for city of Boca Raton, taking our meetings, our calls, working together on advocacy. I encourage this council to become a part of the Tallahassee. That's where a lot of the decisions that we have every single day impact why I go up there often, why I've been involved with Florida League of Cities and National League of Cities, because I do believe that the more they preempt local government, the less We're going to have a say in it. So hopefully other folks here will step up and take some of those responsibilities that I've had. I know Mayor Thompson has gone up with me to Tallahassee and others and previous councils. So it's a little bittersweet for me, too. But, you know, I always say the best is yet to come. And I believe for both of you, that is also true. So thank you for your service. Greatly appreciate it.

Okay. Well, Senators, thank you again. Thank you for your service to our city and our community for so many years, and we were blessed by your representation. Thank you, guys.

Thank you very much.

That concludes our presentations and proclamations, and we can move now to board appointments. We have four boards on our agenda, but only two of them have applicants, and by that I mean the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, the Community Appearance Board, the Financial Advisory Board, and the Sustainability Advisory Board do not have any applicants, so we don't need to worry about making any appointments on those. We'll keep those vacancies open. But we can address the two boards that do have applicants, those being the Community Advisory Panel and the Marine Advisory Board. So let's start first with the Community Advisory Panel. We do have one applicant, Sean Ferris. Is he here to interview? That was Mark Ironman and the other one that was here yesterday. Mr. Ferris, last call. We have two vacancies on the community advisory panel. Mr. Ferris is applying for one. So members of the council, what is your pleasure?

Could we hold over? Sure.

If that is the will of the body, sure. Am I sensing that as the will of the body? All right. Well, then we will hold open the vacancies on the community advisory panel and we invite Mr. Ferris to come and interview when the opportunity arises next meeting. The last advisory board that we have on our agenda is the Marine Advisory Board. We have one vacancy and one applicant, Mr. Ironman, who did interview with us yesterday. So members, what's your pleasure?

Mayor Thompson, I move that we appoint Mark Ironman to the Marine Advisory Board.

I will second that nomination. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Very good. I believe the eyes have it. So Mr. Ironman has been appointed to the Marine Advisory Board. All thank you for your, well, I guess Mr. Ironman, and to a lesser degree at the moment, Mr. Ferris, thank you for your interest in serving. We hope to have as many residents involved on our advisory boards as possible. So we have a number of vacancies. If anyone in the audience is interested, please submit an application. We would love to have you. that concludes our board appointment so we can move on to our consent agenda so let me ask first is any member of the council wish to remove any item from the consent agenda seeing none i will ask the public if they have any public comment to offer on any item related to the consent agenda if so please stand you will have up to three minutes once you give us your name and address miss paschke

Hi, I'm Pam Paschke, I live at 341 Southwest 2nd Street. So this is about item M, 8M, the cemetery rules. I have no problem with the changes that you're planning to make, however, I had never read the rules before, and so I have some issues, questions, whatever you want to call them. And you didn't label the two paragraphs that you have, and you changed the number of number two to number six. I'm not sure why that happened. But the first item is in section one, definitions. The second item is in section nine. I think your resolutions should have those in there. But in the definitions, it says that articles includes chairs, settees, benches, fencing, and boarders. I don't believe any of those are allowed on a cemetery plot. But it says here that they are. Then in section nine, number six you call it, but it's number two of the articles, it says, you know, you can't put them in the way of the mowing and all this stuff. the curious thing to me is that chairs and settees in the first place but down in the section of the regulations that's called rules on conduct of persons within the cemetery there are two that are of interest section 10 this is section 10. item 1 says persons shall only use the avenues walks alleys and roads when in the cemetery so i don't know how you get to walk to a grave if you can't go off the pavement That's a weird rule to have in there. Then number six talks about lounging on the grounds, and it says, no one shall be permitted to sit or lounge on any of the grounds, graves, or monuments in the cemetery or mausoleum. This, to me, sounds like it precludes people from going to the gravesite and kneeling down or sitting down to talk to their past loved one. That's what it sounds like. I'm sure that's not the intent. But you're also saying they can put chairs and settees there, but you can't sit in them. which doesn't make any sense. There are benches that people can purchase. And apparently you can't sit on those either under this rule. So I think maybe since this is from 1996, and probably a lot of the wording is from long time ago, that maybe you should revisit a little more of this rules and regulations of the cemetery.

Thank you, Ms. Paschke. Anyone else wishing to offer public comment on any items on the consent agenda? Mr. Warner.

Richard Warner, 1322 Southwest 9th St. i also want to discuss the cemetery briefly i've had in the past issue with the city concerning the cemetery and continue to have somewhat of a disdainful attitude to the way it operates. I think there should be more freedom there. I think you should be able to sit on a bench. I think you should be able to have something above the ground which is banned and i understand the reasons in terms of maintaining the grass but the grass isn't maintained all that well anyway and i see people maintaining grass all over the city and managing to get around structures like things that might be put on a grave particularly i mean this goes back to joanne davis that probably none of you know or remember but uh She had a child who drowned and wanted to put a little picture, a little statue, a bronze of the child and a squirrel on top of the grave. And the city sued her and demanded she remove it. I just think I'm not a big fan of over-regulation regarding anything, as you may know. But in particular, cemeteries, et cetera, are such personal, sacred things. The less regulation, the better, in my opinion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Warner. Anyone else for public comment on any of the items on our consent agenda? Last call for public comment on the consent agenda. All right, we'll close the time for public comment on the consent agenda. And now I ask for a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as presented.

So moved.

Very good. Second? Nobody jumping into second? Second. Very good. Thank you, Mr. Perlman. It's a consent agenda. There's not really time for discussion. So Ms. Sittons, please take the roll.

Grau? No. Drucker? Yes. Perlman?

Yes. simple no Thompson yes motion passes three votes to two very good and let me just add uh it to the extent the concern there was relating to the cemetery provision which is a perfectly valid point in the future why don't we just pull that one item there's no reason to in my view for the rest of the consent agenda to be uh held up as a result of that

no true but that's how the procedure works in our there's not really the whole point of it the consent agenda is not there's not discussion i understand okay mayors yes mr can i just just make a comment um because i meant to pull it earlier but the firefighter agreement was in here um thank you for your service and that the collective bargaining has been approved with a consent agenda

let me offer this then in the future if there's a pending motion in a second you can move to amend it to withdraw it and look I'm I'm new at this myself so I think that might be in the future how we handle it which is again a perfectly valid thing to do everybody with me I realize that I actually skipped over that little section that mentioned the settees and whatnot and just realized it now so that's why I voted no okay well how about this at the very least let me just before we move on if there is additional revisions that might be appropriate to that particular matter i think you whoever felt strongly about it and i'm open to considering them provide them to the city manager and we can bring it back at some other time there's no need for us to leave it the way that it is if we have reservations about it i want it to be as good as it can be so if there have if we have issues we can revisit it on another time if that's okay All right. That's the consent agenda. We can move now to resolutions and other business. We have none. We can move then to item 10, quasi-judicial and related public hearings. I believe likewise we have none because we removed item 10A. So we can move then to item 11, which is regular public hearings. And the public hearing for items A and A1 will be combined as these items are interrelated. but a separate vote will be taken in each item should item a not be approved no vote will be taken on item a1 so madam clerk if you could please read the title of ordinance number 5792 and resolution number 79 2026.

Ordinance number 5792, an ordinance of the city of Boca Raton amending chapter five, animals, article one, code of ordinances, by creating section 5-4, feeding of certain nuisance animals prohibited, to prohibit the feeding of iguanas, rats, mice, or pigeons in a quantity or manner reasonably likely to attract or sustain their presence or congregation. Amending chapter nine, miscellaneous offenses, Article 4, Section 9-60, Supplemental Code Enforcement Procedures, Code of Ordinances, to authorize the enforcement of such prohibition through the issuance of direct citations, providing for severability, providing for repealer, providing for codification, providing an effective date. Resolution 79-2026, a resolution of the city of Boca Raton amending the schedule of minimum civil penalties for violations enforced pursuant to section 9-60 code of ordinances. Resolution number 163-2018 as amended by resolution number 68-2022 and resolution number 118-2023. relating to direct citations to add section 5-4 feeding of certain nuisance animals prohibited providing for severability providing for a peeler providing an effective date thank you miss siddons mr soany who will be making the presentation on these matters thank you mr mayor development services director mr shadd will make the presentation

Good evening, Mayor and Council, Brandon Chad, Development Services Director. This is an ordinance pertaining to nuisance feeding of certain animals and a resolution to implement a fine schedule for those violations. So for background, this ordinance was prepared at the request of the mayor to address impacts from feeding certain nuisance animals. And in particular, the feeding of iguanas, rats, mice, or pigeons can encourage those animals to congregate and may result in waste accumulation, pest activity, property damage, public disruption, offensive odors, and risk to public health and safety. This ordinance would prohibit feeding those animals in a way that's likely to attract or sustain the presence or congregation of those animals and authorize the use of direct citation for enforcement and add a violation to the direct citation fine schedule. The purpose is to prohibit people from placing, depositing, distributing, or leaving food in a quantity or a manner that's reasonably likely to attract or sustain the presence of, sorry, the presence or congregation of iguanas, rats, mice, or pigeons. And it focuses on, again, the quantity and manner in which the food is provided and doesn't require that we establish that a particular animal consumed the food or caused a particular instance of waste or property damage.

that is the ordinance um and the resolution the uh the direct citation uh fine for this violation would be a hundred dollars um and i am here to answer any questions you might have thank you mr shadd any questions for staff here i have a couple questions um mr shadd how much time has staff spent uh preparing this ordinance from your staff time and the time of the and legal as well to prepare this ordinance

I really could only estimate there was a version of this ordinance that was proposed about three years ago. I would say we spent a significant amount of time then. So we this time it was mostly just making some adjustments.

So we've had conversations with pretty much every council member agenda reviews. Staff has been present to discuss this ordinance, correct? Yes. And this ordinance was brought without the sorry, I got to put on my glasses without the Iguanas, rats, and mice. It was brought about maybe two and a half years ago. The pigeon law, we called it back then, or ordinance.

I believe it was a more, it was broader at that point.

And I believe the council went, it was, I think it was a zero to five vote.

The council declined to adopt it. I don't recall the vote.

That's my beginning questions. I'll have a few more as we go along. Thanks.

Very good. Any more questions? Ms. Sibyl. Okay. Ms. Sibyl.

I have several constituents that have sent me emails that are concerned regarding feral cat colonies that are being fed that are mostly under trap, neuter and release programs. Also, just having a bird feeder in your yard. Seriously, is that going to be I mean, I understand just a regular size bird feeder. I mean, I'm sure if you're putting out a drum of bird food, that would be a little bit different, but they just want to verify that those will be excluded from this ordinance.

Sure. So, so to the first question, um, cats are not among the, the animals that are named, so they're not included. Um, when it comes to bird feeders, yes, that is a typical, typical activity. That's not a problem. This is really meant to address extreme situations where, you know, many, many, many animals are being, um, uh, attracted to a particular location and causing a public nuisance.

Thank you. I just wanted to assure them that that was the case. Thanks.

Ms. Grau, did you have any questions?

Yeah, just a few comments, but I wanted to find out if this was basically responding to a documented community-wide problem or whether this ordinance is effectively being created to address the conduct of one person or a neighborhood dispute.

so i can only tell you what i know and i'm only aware of one particular situation that this ordinance would be applicable to but of course there could be other situations that arise in the future i thank you i'm just concerned that it would create like an unnecessary level of government regulation we're already heavily legislated and i'm not sure how it would be even enforced

Okay, any more questions? Ms. Drucker?

I have to say, when I saw this ordinance come back, I had to really, I had to contain a lot of the comments that I had to say. First of all, this is very hard to enforce, which we've had this discussion in the past. Second of all, why are we wasting time with everything that's going on in the community, property tax reform, development, We want to get the Memorial Park done on something that is a one single issue. I find it that we're wasting taxpayer dollars by bringing this up because we discussed this ordinance in a different capacity a few years ago. And the fact that we're back here again, I can't imagine someone is sitting out there, possibly they are, feeding iguanas, rats and mice. I mean, I just find it that it's hard to to really control that and also to enforce that. And you want our code enforcement officers, even the even if the fine goes to pay for them, they're doing other types of work. I have to say this is a very I don't have to laugh or to to be annoyed by it, because truthfully, not sure why this was brought back to us, because There's no way to control this. There's no way to control if you have a bird feeder and more than one animal goes to it, or if you have, you know, a cat that wants to eat out of the bird feeder, or if there's a seagull that wants to take, you know, do this business on a dock for sorts. I just think that we've wasted enough time, and I was on this council when this came before us, and that once again, we're here with the amount of things that we need to get done as a city, that we're here discussing this ordinance again, it's a little bit kind of surprising to me. And we shouldn't be getting into neighborly disputes and putting things on the book where we can't enforce because how do you enforce if who's doing this? Are we going to have our code enforcement monitoring these people for feeding these animals? I just find this, with all due respect, Mayor, just a really waste of time and a waste of taxpayer dollars. And I just have no other words except that, you know, Nothing else to say. And I usually have a lot to say.

Well, thank you, Ms. Drucker. I appreciate your respect on that. A couple comments. One is the old ordinance where you were on the council, I don't think anyone else was, is different in kind. Is there some overlap? Sure. But is it as broad as the last one? No. It's actually quite much more limited. You mentioned that is a waste of our time. This isn't going to come as a shock to anybody sitting in the audience, but some things that we deal with here have real significance to them, and they feel like they have universal significance, but there are other things that are smaller, admittedly. Believe it or not, not everything that we do on the city council is landmark legislation. In fact, very little of what we do on the city council involves landmark legislation. Instead, it involves issues affecting our residents. And when residents come and point out an issue, it is up to us to determine if it's something that merits relief. If you feel that it doesn't merit relief, that's fine. But to say that simply because the staff had to spend time in an agenda review going over the ordinance with the members of the council, therefore makes it wasteful. I don't think that that is necessarily the case, respectfully. You had asked also about bird feeders. I think it was made clear that bird feeders are not intended to be encapsulated by this. This is talking about the kinds of feeding that brings volumes of these nuisance animals, not the kind that a bird feeder would provide. That said, it feels like everybody's shared their comments. That is good. I appreciate that. We still have a public hearing to conduct on this, and so I'd like to get some feedback from the community. And if you all have some comments, I think now is the time for us to open up the public hearing. So if anybody wishes to speak on this matter, I have at least one, maybe a few cards. Now is the time, so please step forward to the podium, state your name and address, and you will have up to three minutes. First card I have is Mark Stahlbaum.

everybody mark stall down 309 spanish river i think the ghost in the room or something is probably me because i did bring this this is you know i'm not the first person to have suffered this i know of others that have but there's no outlet for people to to do anything about it so it can't go to The police can't go to Florida wildlife. You can't go anywhere, which brings up the point that that's what happens in municipalities all over Florida. Just in January, Royal Palm Beach just passed their ordinance. Similar type of ordinance, of course, a little different, but same type of idea, and they just passed theirs. Palm Beach County. You go on a Palm Beach County property. same ordinance okay the law you do you feed animals on a palm beach county property you get a ticket this is so this is just covering boca it's covering as was mentioned a few times that it's for something that's you know a lot of okay i think i don't know if anybody remembers back to the pictures and the videos i showed a couple years ago but it's upwards of 150 to 200 pigeons in this case and they're around all the time flying dive bombing me, my house, pooping my house, my cars, all of those types of things, and the person that's feeding them, my neighbor, is overfeeding them by far. Shouldn't be feeding them at all. They're an invasive species and a creature that, you know, doesn't even belong here anyway. They're not protected by the Federal Bird Act. If you read the Federal Bird Act, It's actually says that pigeons are invasive and they're not protected the far wildlife. They use that as the base for their rules and their laws, although they don't have a law about feeding them, but that's what they use. So even to Florida wildlife, they're invasive and these like i said i provided a whole bunch to mayor about the other ordinances around the state there's plenty of them to choose from to look at and like i said royal palm beach just passed theirs in january so this isn't a funny thing this isn't something that is rare or weird or something that's just me against you know, one person or something like that. This is something that even in the community next door was happening. And I know that because my parents live in the community next door, right? And it was the same thing, overfeeding of birds, the whole street was full of poop, you know, and there was nothing they could do about it, except they have an HOA, tried to do a little bit from that perspective i don't live in an hoa i can't do anything i have to come here this is my only outlet to try and get this accomplished and maybe to save a whole lot of other people out there that feel like they don't have the power the ability to go out there and do something about it so thank you for your time thank you mr stallone next card i have is richard warner

Richard Warner, 1322 Southwest 9th Terrace.

At the risk of being redundant or offending anyone, I think this is absurd. There seems to be a movement afoot in this country to disregard important things and do things like rename bodies of water this is right in there with that are we going to criminalize the pigeon lady on 20th street come on and we've got better things to do i understand the gentleman's being upset I am upset that iguanas think that my pool is a toilet. There's not a hell of a lot you can do about it. And there's not a hell of a lot you can do about this either. Another regulation at the risk of being redundant please Less regulations not more.

Thank you Thank you. I think that's all the cards. I have in this item. Does anyone else want to speak on this matter? Please Paschke. I

Pampaschke 341 Southwest 2nd Street. I wasn't going to talk on this, but I thought that was very interesting. And I wonder if there isn't a way that the city could establish a method where if someone has a complaint, that it will be addressed by the city rather than just making this rule that's you know suggest you could peek over somebody's fence and see if they had a lot of pigeons but maybe there is a process where there would be something he could complain and have this particular situation addressed without going through this whole declaring all pigeons you know as bad so just a thought

Thank you. Just to respond briefly, Ms. Paschke, the system in place would be the code enforcement procedure, which is why we're having this discussion now, and it would be reported to the city, and so they would investigate. And ideally, warn the person if they're feeding people to the extent that it's creating a nuisance. Start there, and if they continue to do it, then we have to use the code enforcement process, unfortunately. I don't see that as being wasteful or unnecessary or below us. In fact, I don't believe there's anything that's below us. Anyone else who should be heard on this? Go ahead.

I'm Brianna Hagquist, 5710 A Coach House Circle. And with me, of course, are Thaddeus and Ted, the Spokes Tortoises. They're not a nuisance. They're critically endangered wildlife. I have to say, when I first saw this on the agenda, I thought maybe it was kind of a little bit of humor to see if people were paying attention to what's on the agenda. And then I saw it on the Channel 5 News and just about spit my coffee all over the living room rug because I could absolutely not believe that they took the time to come out and find some pigeons and find an iguana running on a wall to put this on the news. And I've probably seen it about four or five times. It's like, what's going on here? Brings... back the memories of eight mayors ago with bill smith when we had the animal exploitation act which if you had a dog and you were walking the dog and it was wearing a t-shirt or a bandana that had a company name or a logo on it You're exploiting the animal by making it advertise for the company. This is honestly, this is real. We had cat shows at Maeve Olin. I had Hobie Cat, a three-time national household pet champion who loved cat shows. i brought him to workshop so he could meet the city council at the time because he's a resident and he had a right to participate in his cat shows and thankfully that was defeated and we continued to have cat shows for a few years after that but When I had the house, I had a mango tree. Mangoes fall down. Mangoes fall down before you can get to them. If there's rats and iguanas out there eating them before I can get out there with my trash bag, am I gonna get cited for feeding animals just because I didn't get out there in time to pick them up? If I have a bird feeder and a pigeon or something sees it and they're able to get in it and eat, am I feeding the pigeon not really um the little birds that I am feeding knock seed down and things on the ground iguanas and rats eat them am I feeding them no this is absolutely ridiculous and it's a total waste of City time and money and having to be here and i can't even imagine what everybody out in channel 5 tv land thinks of all this but please do not pass this this is just absolutely ridiculous and we have a lot better things to do thank you thank you miss hackwis anyone else wishing to be heard on this matter

Good afternoon mayors and councils.

I am the person that is the person who's feeding the pigeons that was here two and a half years, three years ago. because my neighbor hates animals, not only pigeons, every animal in the world. I happen to be the opposite. I rescue animals. I work with a rescue organization. I feed cats in communities. In my community, there's no cats around because I made it my business with other people to get those cats, fix them, and find them homes. And I thank you, everybody, for who's standing up for animal rights. I have maybe a lot of pigeons in my roof, and they've been there for 29 years that I've been in Boca. My parents started feeding the pigeons, and not because they just came one day and gave them an invitation. They were there before us. So I continued to feed the pigeons in my backyard. There's no dirt, there's no rats, there are Iwanas, there are squirrels, there are other different animals, and I cannot do anything about it. can I stop feeding the pigeon probably would they stop coming no I don't have a remote control so I am an animal lover I'm doing the feeding in my home he's trying to dictate that I do not do that in my home but God forbid that I dictate something for him he has taken me to Jail, because he thinks I assaulted him. So he, I'm not gonna go over there.

I'm gonna pause the clock here. We can't have interruptions. Allow her to speak.

Okay, thank you.

Please, Mr. Stahlbaum, allow her to finish.

So anyway, I've gone through a lot with this gentleman. I don't bother him or his wife. My dog was poisoned. I don't have any proof of who did it. But I know, but I know,

Mr. Stahlbaum, I'm gonna warn you one last time. Please do not interrupt the speaker when she's speaking. Ma'am, continue.

Thank you, sir. I'm not accusing him of anything behind his back. I've told him in front of everybody. I'm not talking to him. The judge told me not to even look at him. So understand that I'm here and I didn't even know this was in the agenda. If you want to penalize me and charge me $100, I will start keeping up with feeding those birds. It is not their fault that they come into my backyard. And I'm the one that you guys are voting on, nobody else. because in back of my house, there are ladies that are feeding the pigeons, but his eyes are on me and five cameras and all the pictures that he sent you is because those cameras are on me and the pigeons. And he has told the police that. So if you wanna start finding me now, let's do it. Thank you.

Anyone else wishing to be heard on this matter? Last call for, oh, go ahead.

martin bell 761 southwest street southwest southwest third street rather um i think if we're going to have to break one way or another i think the benefit of the doubt has to go to the animal lover because i'm an animal lover that's all i got to say and i think that uh these two maybe need to take up this issue with judge judy because this is really not the forum for it but i support you ma'am

Last call for public comment on items 11A. OK, we'll close the time for the public hearing. And I will ask for a motion and a second to adopt ordinance number 5792. I will move to adopt ordinance number 5792. Is there a second? Second. Very good. Any further discussion beyond what we've articulated already? Go ahead, Ms. Rucker.

Oh, yes. I've got more to say. So, again, I think I alluded to this earlier. And Mayor Thompson, we're going to disagree on this one. This is one resident complaint against another resident complaint. It has no room for us in this discussion. in this area, we should not enact policy for one party or for neighborly fights. We have to be better with our governance, better with our time, and better with our property taxpayer dollars. If this was an issue with multiple residents throughout the community, we would have heard about it. And what we've heard, I've heard, I could say from my emails, is people concerned about the ordinance and a variety of reasons of why so not because we have a huge amount of people coming to us to say you know we have this and I agree we take on smaller issues but we usually take on other issues if we have a need because there's a demand but this is the same gentleman that came to us three years ago with the same neighbor that came three years ago And I am a little bit disappointed because we have spent a lot of time. And in my opinion, wasted a lot of staff time discussing this even tonight, because we started this item 24 minutes ago. So again, not good governance and it's never below us or code enforcement to implement proper code enforcement. So just making sure we're on the same page on that, but I will not support a policy that's for one person. If we start governing for one item, if everybody brings us their grievances and we start governing that way, I mean, I'm not sure what's going to happen. Then we're really going to need, you know, other, other help. So for those reasons, I'll be voting against the ordinance again.

Thank you. Any other comments? All right. Ms. Sittons, call the roll.

For Ordinance 5792, Councilmember Drucker? No. Perlman? Yes. Sippel? Yes. Thompson?

Yes.

Crowell? No. Motion passes, three votes to two.

And now for Resolution 79-2026. Yep.

Resolution 79, Councilmember Perlman.

Yes.

Sippel. Yes. Thompson.

Yes.

Grau. No. Drucker. No. Motion passes, three votes to two.

Okay, very good. We can move on to item 11b, resolution number 88-2026. Madam Clerk, could you please read the title?

Resolution 88-2026, a resolution of the City of Boca Raton pursuant to Chapter 166, Florida Statutes, determining whether the city or any independent special district within its boundaries holds fee simple title to any real property that is appropriate for use as affordable housing, providing for severability, providing for repealer, providing an effective date.

Thank you. Mr. Soheni, who will be making the presentation on this item?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Development Services Director, Mr. Schad, will make the presentation.

Good evening again, Mayor and Council Brandon Chad, development services director. As mentioned, Florida statutes requires that once every three years that the city hold a public hearing and pass a resolution that identifies any properties to which the city or any dependent special district. In our case, that means the CRA holds title to that is appropriate for affordable housing. So what we have done is we've assembled a list of all of the properties that are owned by the city and the CRA that's in the backup our recommendation is that the city council determined that none of those properties are appropriate for affordable housing in large part because they're needed for municipal functions if the council can choose to accept that recommendation and pass the resolution that we have included in the packet and that will fulfill the requirement if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them

Great. Do we have any questions for staff? Seeing none, we will open up the public hearing. So if anyone wishes to speak on item 11B, resolution number 88-2026, please step forward, state your name and address, and you'll have up to three minutes. Ms. Paschke.

You guys have missed me. Pam Paschke, 341 Southwest Second Street. I don't really have a problem with any of this, but I have a question. So I studied the map. I was ignorant about the 2020 gift from the Boca Hotel that is on in county property above the city line. So my question really is first is a curiosity question. If there is a crime or a fire Who responds? The city owns the property, but it's on county land. That's my first question. My second question is, are we working to you know put that land back in into the city since the city owns it especially where the country club is which happens to be where I had my wedding my wedding reception so I don't I'm curious are we going to at least get that building in there so that there is no question about fire and you know anyway that's all that was it Thank You miss Paschke I'll take a stab at answering that because it's in the county County Sheriff and County Fire respond

As it relates to annexing that area, it's more complicated than it sounds because there are adjoining properties that would have to be annexed before we could get to it because you can't annex an island, chief among them being the Costco property, which has its own ups and downs in terms of the benefits or I guess the consequences of having that be part of the city. There's no active effort to undertake that. remember when that gift was made back in 2020 there were many desire many requests made of the city by the residents in Boca Country Club to annex them but they also opposed the golf course being transferred at the same time so I don't believe there's any active effort discussions being made to accomplish that I think that's where that stands I hope that answers your very good questions not just curiosities anyone else wishing to be heard on this matter Last call for comment on item 11B. If there's no one else, I will close the public hearing and entertain a motion to adopt resolution number 88-2026.

So moved. Second.

Second, very well. Any further discussion? If not, Ms. Sittons, if you please.

SIPL? Yes. Thompson?

Yes.

Grau? Yes. Drucker? Yes. Perlman?

Yes.

Motion passes. Five votes to zero.

Great. We can move on then to ordinance number 5793. Madam Clerk, could you please read the title of that ordinance?

Ordinance number 5793, an ordinance of the city of Boca Raton amending the fiscal year 2025 through 2026 budget through the second budget amendment, providing for severability, providing for repealer, providing an effective date.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Mr. Suhaney, who will be making the presentation on this matter?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, our deputy city manager and CFO. Mr. Zervas will make the presentation.

Mayor and members of the City Council, this is the second amendment to the current year fiscal budget. This budget amendment really encapsulates four major changes. The first and the most significant, I think, is the SEIU agreement. So the total impact of that across all funds of the city is $3,964,900. It's increasing expenditures. This was from the recently ratified and and city council approved memorandum with the seiu as a reminder this is this the first budget amendment which was approved earlier this year dealt with a similar financial impact for unrepresented employees we couldn't include seiu impacts at that time because it was still subject to bargaining and so that process has been completed so we're now updating the budget for that impact The second item is an increase in expenditures for SHIP grants. That's state housing grants in the amount of $23,100. That's a pass-through grant from the city to first-time homebuyers. The third item is related to medical insurance. So we're seeing an increase in our claims utilization. We're increasing that expenditure line item by $5 million. That is an estimate. It's not an actual number We're also estimating about two million dollars coming back to the city from our stop-loss providers So that offsets the five million which nets to a three million dollar expenditure increase and then the fourth and final item we have the city is evaluated and decided not to move forward with a CIP project and That funding for that project in the amount of $3,300,000 was transferred from the CIP fund to the IT fund who is conducting the procurement. Because that's not moving forward, we're now moving that money back out of the IT fund and into the city's CIP fund where it will be available for other city capital projects. That concludes the items that are included in the budget amendment. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Zervas. Are there any questions for Mr. Zervas or other staff? Seeing none, we will open up the public hearing. Anyone wishing to speak on item 11C, ordinance number 5793, please step to the podium, state your name and your address, and you'll have up to three minutes. I don't believe what I'm seeing, Ms. Paschke.

Pam Paskey, 341 Southwest 2nd Street. I don't have any problem with any of this budget, but I have a question about the disclosure of the fiscal impact. So that disclosure merely addresses the expenditures and talks about how much more the expenditures are, but I don't think it gives any of the reader real overall fiscal impact statements. I'm a CPA, okay? So you have in the detail certain revenues that are coming in that offset some of the expenses, and then you're taking a whole bunch of things out of reserves. So I guess what I would have liked to see is what is the impact on these reserves? Which reserves are they? I know you name them, but you know. Let me pretend I'm a layperson. So I don't know these reserves, so I'm wondering, well, we have this reserve set up, so how much were we kind of thinking when we set it up that we would have to take out? Did we take out more than we thought we were gonna? Is the reserve too low now? So that's my question is, yes, all the expenditures are here, but it makes it look awful, like we've all of a sudden spent all this money, but in reality, we had reserves set up. We have a little bit of money coming in to cover some of it, so that's kind of what I was thinking. I don't know what the rules are for this fiscal impact disclosure. I know you have to do it, but I don't know what the rules are. So that's my question.

Thank you, Ms. Paschke. Anyone else wishing to comment on item 11C? Seeing none, we'll close the time for the public hearing. I believe Mr. Zervas may have an answer to your question. Ms. Paschke?

Sure, Ms. Paschke. As far as official rules for the fiscal impact statement, I'm not aware of any. So as far as compliance with those rules, I don't think that's an issue. But I certainly understand your desire for more clarity in the fiscal impact statement. So we'll work to make some improvements there in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Zervas. We'll now entertain a motion and a second to adopt ordinance number 5793.

Motion to adopt.

Sippel with the motion. Very good. Who's the second?

Second.

Ms. Drucker is the second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, Ms. Sittons, please.

Thompson?

Yes.

Grau? Yes. Drucker? Yes. Perlman?

Yes.

Sippel? Yes. Motion passes. Five votes to zero.

Very good. That concludes our regular public hearings. We can move on now to public requests. I have a couple of cards and even if you didn't give me a card, that's fine. Now's the time for you to speak up regarding what you have to say about your city of Oak Raton. The first card I have is Jim wood, Jim woods. So please step forward, state your name and address, and you'll have up to three minutes.

at Jim Wood, 390 Northeast 3rd Street. I submitted comments to the draft Vision Zero action plan last month, but I didn't get any feedback. And so I wanted to submit the comments here. I wanted to do it last night at the meeting, but I had a conflict. So four points. My main concern with the document is the absence of a goal completion target date and a process for measuring the progress toward the date. Planning should start with a goal date for when the city requires road map fatalities and serious injuries to be zero. And the rest of the plan should be the road map for how to achieve this goal. One of my favorite quotes is from the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. If you don't know where you're going, any path will get you there. So I think we need our target completion date for when these Vision Zero goals are going to be met. Number two, the city needs to be prepared to move fast to achieve the Vision Zero goals. Portland, Oregon is one of the leading US cities for transportation planning. They were the first platinum-level bicycle-friendly communities. And that's bronze, silver, gold, platinum. But they missed their Vision Zero goals. And a bicycling advocate in Portland made this comment regarding their failure. Safety threats evolve faster than steps to mitigate them. Number three, one of the challenges with a data-different approach to Vision Zero planning is data selection bias, and that is the city might exclude roadways that are so dangerous for motorists, pedestrians, or bicyclists that they're underutilized. The resulting crash data would exclude these roadways from being prioritized in Vision Zero planning. Examples include Dixie Highway, Yamato Road, which are very dangerous for bicyclists. And chances are, if you look at the crash data, it's probably nonexistent. So the ask is that the data-driven approach should be augmented with the study of this phenomenon. And as Vision Zero projects are implemented, the dynamics of traffic flow in the city will change. When Vision Zero projects are being estimated, potential secondary effects of the projects should be estimated and crash mitigation measures included. The city needs to avoid the situation where a Vision Zero project causes unanticipated problems elsewhere after its implementation. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Wood. Great to see you again. Next card I have is Mark Griffith.

This is scary.

Mark Griffith, 401 Northwest 15th Street. Okay, so I became energized a bit. I started coming to meetings and got involved with Save Boca, love them. Watched Frisbee group go down and watched them defend our public land. I made an effort to speak to Mr. Thompson, but the meeting was not given, so I'm here, a reluctant speaker. my concern with say Boca is that I think we fell short and Royal Park being the only thing that we kept our eyes on John wanted to the study to encompass all the public land and it was limited to Memorial Park I think that was a mistake and I'm a golfer so I studied mr. Thompson's position on the Boca National Golf Course that was eliminated under his leadership back in 2019. That golf course, had it been completed, would have been in 2020. It would have paid for itself in three years. It would have generated $42 million in proceeds to date. And I thought that would be a good idea if you knew that, because with the pending pressure we're getting from taxation, that seems more remarkable now than maybe it was then. The result of that leadership, however, is what we see at North Park at this point. It's kind of a wasteland for six years, but now it's ramping up. We got a PP3 lease for 50 years for a pickleball facility and a restaurant. We've agreed to the skate park, the walking trails. which I don't think is going to be heavily used, honestly, in a nine-hole facility, which just isn't a championship golf course. And this is the mark. It's not the highest and best used by far. So right now, there's a full court press to approve these projects at North, and those projects will forever eliminate the possibility of that golf course. And I know this is, you know, 19th, you know, 10th inning, but I just have to come up and plead my case that revisit this golf course. If you do that, it's a way to address a lack of taxation, in my opinion. So to do that, I would like the council to consider or talk up the possibility of putting a moratorium on all the projects at North Park and revisit the option of the 18-hole golf course so that it can be reevaluated. Like the other lady that came up here and said, let's go with a long-range planning board. I'll volunteer my services for that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Griffith. Next card I have is indicates that Lily Perez will be speaking.

Good evening again, Mr. Mayor and the board members. This is Yolanda Cibron, and I believe that she did send an email to all of you regarding the issue that she's having on 303 Northwest Spanish River Boulevard. She put this together, so I'm gonna read it for her. It's English, her second language, so she doesn't feel comfortable. She's here tonight to respectfully request a high variance from section 28-1356 to permit an eight foot hedge buffer along the side of her property line. She wants to be clear, this request is driven entirely by severe topographical change that was completed out of control in 2022 by her neighbor at 309 Northwest Spanish River Boulevard. artificially backfill and raise the elevation of their ploy by three feet right against her shared property line. On top of this three foot platform, they place a 4.5 foot wood picket fence. As you can see in the pictures that she emailed to you, Her yard remains at the original, natural gray. This combined structure creates a 7.5-foot vertical wall facing her property. The bottom three feet is a landscape industrial plastic retaining sheet that was built, and the top is the rough backing of a wood fence. More importantly, because the neighbor is standing on a three-foot elevator platform, their 4.5-foot fence only acts like a 1.5-foot safety railing from their vantage point. When they walk their yard, they are fully visible from the waist up. My baseline residential privacy has been completely destroyed. You can see the pictures and he's sitting in his fence or from his waist up, you can see his whole body. So whether she's in the pool or whether she's in her backyard, he's always looking. I cannot move my plans and were to escape the city's six foot setback rule as shown in the pictures. My home foundation sits exactly nine feet from the property line. I am physically trapped in a narrow corridor with zero spatial alternatives. A standard six foot hedge measure from my lower grade is completely useless here. It leaves me entirely exposed. An eight foot hedge on my side functions only as a five foot screen, relatively to the neighbor's elevated stance. This variance is the absolute minimum relief required to restore the basic privacy my home enjoyed before the neighbor altered the land. It will not alter the character of the neighborhood and it impacts no one else. I kindly ask the board to approve this variance based on a clear topographical hardship. She's waiting on a resolution and review by you as she has received a letter from the code compliance that she has to cut her hedges on August 31st. So she's waiting on your answer.

Okay, thank you, Ms. Perez. The time is concluded, but I can report that. I believe, Ms. Zabrone, don't go away. I believe that you did meet with Doug Sheedy, one of our code enforcement, the head of our code enforcement department, and then I'm told that Brandon Shad, who runs development services, is gonna be in contact with you to follow up. So we are tracking this. Oh, thank you. You're welcome. Next card I have is Jose Herrera.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Jose Herrera. I'm the head coach of the girls lacrosse program at Boca High. This past season, I volunteered as a coach with the Boca Jets lacrosse program. During the season, I realized a lot of issues. Volunteers didn't have directions. A lot of parents did not know about girls lacrosse. A couple of parents were doing everything, and they were doing a great job, but there were about 60 girls out there. after a tournament a lot of parents were complaining and on my way home i realized that i had never ever been asked to complete a background check to work with the kids as soon as i realized this i brought it to the attention of the main parent volunteer during that conversation i was told that background checks had not been conducted on volunteers for the previous two years this is the second requirement in the city's application process to be a partner that obviously concerned me and it prompted me to look further into how the program was being operated I emailed the league director to me and discuss my concerns, but he did not respond. I then brought the issues to Jim Henniger with the city of Boca Raton. It was only after I filed a complaint with the city that I was asked to fill out a background check retroactively, which I declined because in my opinion, a background check is a safeguard that should happen before. Mr. Hanegger advised me that Boca Jets had signed an affidavit stating that they would do background checks. They did not. As I looked further into the organization, I discovered what I believe serious issues regarding its nonprofit status and the absence of current publicly available IRS filings. I presented the documents that they lost their nonprofit license in 2019 at the Parks and Rec board meeting, supporting the concerns that I have raised. And I have provided that I am prepared to provide that documentation to you all as well. I want to make something I'm very clear I do not want youth lacrosse in Boca Raton to die. I don't want kids to lose the opportunity to play because adults fail to follow the rules. That is why I already told Mr. Hennigan, the city, that I'm willing and prepared to step in temporarily and have necessary paperwork in place. I have the necessary paperwork in place and I can serve as a safeguard to keep the girls lacrosse program operating while the city conducts a fair new RFP process. Mr. Henniger advised me that they were trying to get the organization back in line, but did not give me a date of a deadline. I am currently already having clinics and free lacrosse lessons every Friday for every girl in Boca until December. That's 16 90-minute practices for free that I'm doing for girls lacrosse. But based on my experience and concerns, I do not believe that the city should simply continue allowing Boca Jets to operate as though nothing happened. Organizations are giving the access to city facilities and trusted with our children and expected to follow the rules. I just wanted to come up here and say there's a lot of things happening in the world. I don't want to be a part of a Netflix documentary, so that's why I'm bringing this up. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Herrera, for bringing these matters to our attention. We'll get on them immediately. Last card I have is Richard Warner, who declines the opportunity. If anyone else wishes to be heard during public comment, now is the time. Please step forward, state your name and address, and you will have three minutes. I'm glad I'm sitting down. Ms. Paschke.

Pam Paschke, 341 Southwest 2nd Street. I'm going to share a little story with you and I hope I have a point at the end. I wrote to our representative in the state legislature and expressed my disagreement with certain votes she cast regarding placing the ballot on the ballot what I consider to be a flawed proposed property tax change and secondly to rename the Palm Beach County Airport for a living person. I also commented that I disagreed with the state's push to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, mentioning she should realize that she is in the state legislature because of diversity, equity, and inclusion concepts. I said concepts to her. It was this last item that seemed to tick her off, and she wrote me back and said she doesn't usually write back, but when people insult her, she'll make the effort. She claimed that my comment on DEI was, quote, blatantly false and an outrageous statement. She extolled all of her lifetime accomplishments, which I don't dispute. They were impressive. She closed by saying she doesn't usually respond. I said that already. to emails, but she wrote back because she thought perhaps she could assist me in getting assistance from state agencies apparently for finding treatment for what she termed my suffering and anger. She's a bit older than I am, but I recognize that the push to include women and minorities in the workplace education as equals is what allowed me to be successful as a CPA, though it took a while for attitudes to change. Full equality has not yet been achieved for women or minorities, yet we are now going backward in the state of Florida. It is curious that in our state, diversifying educational and workplace opportunities to include people of many backgrounds and ensure equal treatment of everyone is considered a bad thing. My point here is that I appreciate the city council listens to the residents of Boca and attempts to treat everyone equally. And I hope that you will continue to seek out a diversified workforce, though you can't have the policies to do so, because we are not all of the same background in Boca. I appreciate that even when people call you names or disparage your integrity, that you recognize their passion, consider their concerns, and realize we all really want the same thing for Boca Raton.

Thank you, Ms. Paschke. Anyone else for public requests? Mr. Bell. Thank you.

Martin Bell 761 Southwest 3rd St. I want to start out by complimenting the city. I think the city is getting a little bit of its mojo back. The top pictures of before and bottom is after you can see that we've we're softening the edges. We were talking about hard edges with the consultants in the last meeting and that's an example of where the city is doing a good job. Other examples, North Dixie Highway, the inside of that park. I'm seeing some evidence of it. memorial park too i wanted to say that before i throw the red challenge flag on what's going on with the police station execution where i'm going with this i think that it looks like we're breaking towards the two station option What I'd like to do primarily is see that we get the OG police station, the one we have right now, into the two station option. That was dropped, that just dropped off the radar, and I think we need to make the effort to include that. I did an analysis before I shared that with you that really there is a basis to do two stations. But if you look at West Palm Beach, just to be fair, that does support a single station option. And that station is located on 3.42 acres compared to 4.39 that we have downtown. 94,000 square feet, similar to what we're planning to build. That's about a half a block from the railroad tracks. the downtown boca station has had two derailments uh in 1986 90 1992 they were not major but nonetheless um trained realm and just to bring that just to be fair and bring that into discussion uh response times it is an issue we have to have a strong presence downtown because if you look at uh If you look at the murder and mayhem, it's really concentrated in the downtown. Look at the gun violence. Look what's happening. Three of them are all located within 1.3 miles of the downtown station. Look at the other east location. So that's going to be an issue. We don't want to be racing from Spanish rumor. Community input. The biggest community input is the election. 55% wanted to keep the old police station. We have to keep it in the picture, renovate it, partially repurpose it for the base site. I think we need to get a pocket park and we need to sell this building because staff has brought to our attention that the building is of no insufficient for a new police station and it will be obsolete and an excess asset that can be sold. This is not inspirational. This is a temporary solution. That's a good temporary solution, but this and if you're going to abandon the downtown station, I think that we need to have a notice of public hearing bright signs at that site so people know that that's your attention. But I think you're smarter than that. I think you want to. work with the people because 55 of 18 000 not 256 but 18 000 voted to keep the station one form or another we can multi-purpose a station it can they can do residual city functions that remain after afterwards and we can add a post office there too we can invite them to join the party memorial garden let's call it memorial garden i beg your pardon but your time is elapsed could you please wrap up quickly wrapping up right now uh This resident agrees with me about making Memorial Garden, the base building site, a pocket park. He agrees with me, dog friendly. We can eliminate this edge too. We can eliminate that edge. Okay, another edge.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else for public requests? Ms. Parker.

Martha Parker, 64 Northwest 7th Street. I just wanted to take a couple minutes to commend the city for what they're doing with some of the transparency efforts. I really recommend any residents go and attend as many of these meetings as you can to learn about the police station, whether it's that or the Let's Talk Boca. There's a lot of information that we get to learn about the different departments and things that are happening in our city and it gives, residents an opportunity to just really talk with the leaders of those departments. One of the things that I kind of didn't get to mention and bring up in that last meeting with the Let's Talk BoCo is that our public libraries are really critical public safety infrastructure. Sometimes people don't realize. If you are ever at the Spanish River Library when schools let out, Those are children that might be riding e-bikes while mom and dad are finishing up work, but they're safely contained in the library after school. It also provides a place for our homeless population to have access to public restrooms, air conditioning. It's very hot outside and fresh water. And as somebody that lives next to the downtown library, when those public libraries lost their hours during COVID, there was human feces on the side of our downtown library so whenever we're thinking about services that might be cut libraries are really critical public infrastructure that we have and for for our public safety it was really nice to hear about the property tax from our legislatures today one thing that no one has touched on is what happens to our pension plans We have police, firefighters, city employees who are very dedicated and are serving our cities. What is going to happen with the funding source? These are legal obligations that we have. And morally, these are people that we've made a promise to as their employers to take care of this really critical benefit that they have. So I'd like to hear a little bit more about that. I know our plans are really well funded right now, but what happens if the market tanks? How are we going to meet those obligations? Also, I think it's important for us to consider we live in a hurricane zone. I remember back in 2004, we had, I think it was four storms in a number of six weeks. I was the designated person in my family to go get FEMA ice and I drove here and I got my FEMA ice here and it's not really pleasant. It might have been the following year in Palm Beach Farms, we didn't have electricity for four weeks. if we have one bad storm season how are we going to replenish those funds these are things that i'm thinking about um and and i'd really like to have some type of uh response on on how we're going to take care of these things thank you thank you miss parker i believe miss morrow was standing up to speak go ahead

Good evening. I'd like to thank every council person and the mayor and the city manager and the people that work at City Hall. Thank you for making it a nice transition and voting that I can be on the Parks and Recreation Board. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. and I want to work hard. And I have been retired for 15 years until the last couple years. And the last couple weeks, I've actually worked 60 hours and have received pay. So I'm not a lazy person. So I'm asking the council and the mayor, we have a Parks and Recreation Board with seven members, and the way i understand it is that if you need something you ask us to look into it and i would very much like a job for all seven of our board members including myself to do something with the parks a survey anything and um i would really appreciate that because i want to make it valuable so there's 24 boards so I picked the parks and recreation because we have 49 parks in the city of Boca and I like I like all the parks the gentleman made a very important statement in Broward County they've gotten rid of all the public golf courses so they do come up to Boca to play golf at Osprey, which is a county thing. Osprey makes a lot of money each year, and so also the city council might look into the same thing with golf as with tennis. If we had a world-class tennis facility at War Memorial, the 31 acres or the seven acres, That would bring in revenue, which keeps coming up. Just so that everybody knows, tennis has increased so much in 150 years. There's 27 million people that play tennis. And in 2019, there were only 17 million. Pickleball has 24 million people that play tennis. Padel in 2019 only had 20 courts in the whole United States. Now they have 1,246 Padel courts. I've even played Padel, and it's a very good sport, but it's expensive, and also the other thing I'd like to do is I'd like to make tennis and golf lessons in the city more affordable for children ages six to 17. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Morrow. Anyone else for public requests? Ms. Heckwist.

Brianna Hadquist, 5710A Coach House Circle, and with Thaddeus and Ted, my spokesforces. Just like Judy, I would like to thank all of you for appointing me to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. I've been busy driving around, looking at parks, making notes. You can probably guess my favorite is the new gopher tortoise park. I haven't seen one yet, but I've found a lot of burros. So when it gets cooler, I know where to hang out and look for these little guys. My other one is back at Sugar Sand. It's mating season, if you didn't know. And the real Thaddeus has been out looking for a date for a while, but he's back home. just um very very happy to be on this board i've been talking to people of all ages all over the city wherever i could find somebody that wants to talk so anybody wants to tell me about parks and any ideas you have i'd love to hear it i've also been talking to young people and very little young people and they are very happy to talk once they figure out that an adult is really interested in what they have to say they're very articulate they know exactly what they want and they've explained sports to me from what i'm hearing from the um the young girls they want flag football they'll they'll play softball through elementary school but by the time they get to middle school they want flag football because they want to be ready when they get to high school it's a very competitive sport now also everyone is telling me that they want paddle ball i had no idea what that was i thought paddle ball and pickleball were the same thing but they quickly corrected me and explained the whole thing so i'm very interested in learning what all of these sports are and and what everybody wants in the city and i hope when we get everything figured out with downtown and the police station and the um 7.8 acres i'm hoping that we will have at least some some of that to add some recreational services to it so we can really get what everybody in the city would like to have i think if anybody wants to talk talk to me about what you want for a sport please let me know thank you thank you miss hackwist anyone else for public requests

Good evening, council. My name is Alexandra Avelo, 498 Southwest 12th Terrace, Boca Raton. Publicly, I wanna thank so much Mr. Zohaini and our chief police. You guys are doing a great job. You are actually beating the council now. You are bringing more people into your meeting, Mr. Zohaini, which is a very, very interesting situation that's going on right now. I would not be afraid, like you guys apparently are afraid of the changes and the taxing and the property tax and everything. I remember last mayor and the last council, sign five zeros, all the time voting five zero and sign all of it, 47 or 42 big projects. So those big projects supposedly, right, they are going to bring lots of money. taxes revenue so I would not be afraid yet so let's see how it plays off let's read a little bit more about the amendment 3 and we will have enough money with a new project there on the way that's all what I can say thank you thank you anyone else for a public comment last call for public requests

All right, we will close the time for public requests, and we will move on to item 13, which is introduction of ordinances. We have three such introductions. Madam Clerk, could you please read the title of ordinance number 5794?

Ordinance number 5794. An ordinance of the City of Boca Raton amending Chapter 19, Buildings and Building Regulations, Article 4, Inspections and Construction Requirements, Division 1, Inspections, Section 19-162, building recertification inspection program code of ordinances to ensure consistency of the city's building recertification inspection program with building recertification requirements in state law clarifying that uninhabitable building stories are included for purposes of determining whether a building is subject to recertification amending required deadlines for submittal of recertification reports and permitting and completion of required repairs providing for extension requests of such deadlines, and clarifying technical submittal requirements, providing for severability, providing for repealer, providing for codification, providing an effective date.

Thank you, Ms. Sittons. I will introduce Ordinance Number 5794. So we can turn then to Ordinance Number 5796. Madam Clerk, could you please read the title of that ordinance?

Ordinance number 5796, an ordinance of the city of Boca Raton amending chapter 12, pensions and retirement, article four, pension plan for police and firefighters, section 12-154, purchase of past service to effectuate the pension related provisions of the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the International Association of Firefighters, local 1560, providing for severability, providing for repealer, providing for codification, providing an effective date.

Thank you. Council members, who will introduce this ordinance?

Mayor Thompson will introduce ordinance 5796.

Thank you, Ms. Trucker. Ms. Siddons, could you please read the title of ordinance number 5797?

Ordinance number 5797, an ordinance of the city of Boca Raton amending section 3-109 of the procurement code of the city of Boca Raton entitled exempt contractual services and products to revise and expand the categories of services and products exempt from competitive procurement requirements, providing for severability, providing for repealer, providing an effective date.

Thank you. Councilmembers, who will introduce this ordinance?

I'll introduce this ordinance.

Very good. Thank you, Ms. Sipple. That concludes our introduction to ordinances. We can move then to city manager recommendations and report. Mr. Sahany, what do you got?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to recognize Chief Jared Phelps. He officially was sworn in on July 30th, and very pleased to have him on board leading the department. And he's making his way around to different community events, so I appreciate you welcoming him. next time you see him. Our next community advisory panel conversation about our police services complex is September 2nd at 6pm at the downtown library. I encourage everybody to come out and participate there. also we reorganize the city staff over the last six or seven or eight months that is almost complete the last piece of that is bringing in the ordinance to council on september 8th to establish our public affairs department uh also uh this property tax uh flyer courtesy of our finance department and our public affairs department uh will be in the mail uh this friday and it's it the staff's done a great job of just making it really simple a lot of color pretty easy for me to read as well so again this is coming to your mailbox starting friday The other thing is I want to share that our Recreation Services Director, Mr. Greg Stevens, he announced his plans to retire this May. 37 years of service to the City of Boca Raton. What a remarkable career and I just want to announce that there's going to be plenty of time to celebrate his career over the next six months and we're looking forward to that but In order to really do a thorough replacement for somebody of his caliber, we're going to do a national search for our Parks and Recreation Director starting this September so we can hopefully get that person on board by no later than early January, and that will give us a three-, four-month period to make sure that we have a good turnover. So with that, Mayor, that concludes my report. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Sohaney. City Attorney Report, Mr. Kaler.

No report, thank you, Mayor.

Great. We can then go on to Mayor and Councilmember reports. Why don't we start to my right, Ms. Drucker?

No report.

Ms. Grau?

No report.

All right. Ms. Sippel?

No report.

Mr. Perlman, if you can hear us.

No report.

All right, he can. Very good. I, too, have no report. Thank you all for your patience. We will then conclude. If there's no other business before the City Council, I don't believe there is, we will conclude our meeting at 7.50 in the p.m. Good night, everybody.