Commission - Special Meeting

Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the special meeting of the City of Boynton Beach City Commission. Today is Tuesday, August 11th, 2026, and the time is now 6 p.m. The joint meeting of the City Commission and the CRA will start at the conclusion of the special meeting, followed by the CRA August board meeting. Public comments will be addressed to the commission as a whole when that time comes, and not to any particular individual on the dais or in the audience, and insults, personal attacks, and disruptions will not be permitted, and you'll be asked to leave should you violate these rules. We will now turn to the city clerk for roll call. Commissioner McCray?

Here.

Commissioner Kelly? Here. Commissioner Cruz? Vice Mayor Turkin?

Present.

Mayor Shelton? Present. Mayor, you have a quorum. Thank you. Our invocation tonight will be by Vice Mayor Turkin, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Commissioner McCray. Let's all stand for the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Bow your heads. Heavenly Father, we ask for your wisdom and guidance as we begin tonight's meeting. grant us patience in our discussions, clarity in our decisions, and humility in our service. May we always remember that we are here to serve our residents and strengthen our community. Bless our city, our first responders, veterans, employees, and especially all those we are privileged to represent. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

We are now moving on to the agenda, approval, additions, deletions, and corrections. Let's begin on my left with Commissioner McCray.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm good. Thank you.

Commissioner Kelly? No, thank you, Mayor. Vice Mayor Turkin?

Yes, Mayor, I'd like to add on a discussion for tonight's agenda regarding the land that was being proposed for the police training facility next to 95. In concurrence with that, I'd like to discuss the Girl Scout Park on the east side of 95 as well as a discussion item for 2C.

You want to add it on 2C?

I'm sorry, before, I'm sorry, 2A, 2A. Okay.

Great. Mayor, are we having public comment on this? Agenda? Yeah, we are.

I don't see it on the agenda. I'd like, I'll also amend that we add public comment to before 3. Yes.

Yep. Okay. Motion to approve?

Second.

We have a motion to approve and we have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay.

motion passes we are now going to be moving on to what you wanted to do a awesome thank you yeah so as we know as we've seen online as seen a bunch of emails come in regarding this training facility that the city is providing You know, I've seen a lot, I've heard a lot about, you know, we want this facility to move forward. However, not the right place. And so I've also heard that the city manager is being blamed for this. So I want to make sure that everyone understands that this body controls the purse strings and the budget for the city. So this body voted unanimously for this project. You know, I can be the first to say that I didn't know that this was a site and that's an overlook on myself. And that's where I can hold myself accountable. However, I have seen different proposals about land development projects. over at the Girl Scout Park online that I don't think are accurate. And so what I'm asking for from my colleagues, based on the feedback we got, is two things. First is that when we look at city land, you know, that has a history of... being environmentally sensitive, that we're doing surveys with the community prior to expenditures, such as surveying feasibility studies and things like that. That way we can get a general... IDEA OF WHAT THE COMMUNITY WANTS. I THINK, YOU KNOW, WHEN YOU LOOK AT SOME SURVEYS WE'VE DONE IN THE PAST, THE BOYTON INN BEING ONE OF THOSE, NO ONE WANTS THAT HEAVY RESIDENTIAL HOUSING. THIS IS SOMETHING WE'VE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS, THAT PEOPLE ARE STEERED AWAY FROM THAT. I think it's important that, you know, we move forward with that. And ultimately, you know, we want to make sure that our police officers have the best training, have the best equipment, and that we're supporting them wholeheartedly. I just think that, you know, sometimes there's an institution with the city. There's the institution of what the residents want. Then there's the institution of the body, which is to find that balance and make sure that we deliver for the residents. And that's always going to be, you know, different. And so we have to come together. make that aligned so I would propose that we discuss what our mechanisms are maybe restricted covenant I know From what I've seen in the emails I've got, the protection is the priority for this land. Also, for the Girl Scout parcel, for those who don't know, it's east of 95 next to the Chapel Hill neighborhood. There's a lot of concern of that being developed. If you look on Google Maps, it says future site plan or future park plan, right? So that was a little bit, you know, I don't know where that came from, but I've seen things passed around online. I want to put those rumors to bed. and hopefully have a restricted covenant come back before us to discuss both parcels, if that's within the will of this commission.

I definitely support that.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, and thank you, Mayor. I'm in favor of doing what Vice Mayor just said, but I'm going to be honest. I was taken aback when I heard on Channel 12 News when they say that appointing commissioners guaranteed that this would not pass. And I'm like saying, did I miss a meeting or what happened? I was like, whoa. You know, we have to be cognizant of what we go on TV and say or what we said to the public, whether we agree or not. When we walked out that night, it was a unanimous vote. I do understand your concerns. I have the same concerns that you all have. But I do believe in government for the people and by the people. This is the way that we want to go. then I'm in favor of going that way. But I don't want any more things to get out saying that, you know, I can guarantee. That means like, I'm like saying, why don't y'all have your pre-agenda meetings for? That's why I don't attend them. I'm like saying that this is a meeting before a meeting so that you all will know how you all will be voting. It's sending the wrong message to the citizens of Boynton and also to the state of Florida, as well as the national, as well as the United States of America. Meetings are supposed to be held openly. To the public and everybody who wants to speak will get a right to speak. We get a right to listen. But I'm glad that somebody had the foresight to come back tonight and say, let us move from this and go on to do what is right. And Vice Mayor Turkins, I want to tell you thank you for taking the lead because I was dumbfounded by how can somebody guarantee a vote when there's five of us sitting up here. Thank you.

Commissioner Kelly, do you have any comments?

Thank you, Mayor. I guess this will be directed at staff. I support this to a part because I have concerns. A portion of that land has a building on it. FPNL utilizes. We pay for the bridge access for FPNL only. That land was given to us with the thought that it would get developed, which is why the bridge is there. We're paying for the bridge, so we pay for maintenance of the bridge when we're not using the bridge. So I have concerns with restricting it, but then we, FPNL developed on it. It's FPNL's land. There's a bridge that we maintain, we pay for, and yet we're not gonna be, wouldn't be utilizing that space for anything. So I would like more information to come back before I can 100% commit to that from staff as far as what that looks like going forward if that's something that we can Turn over to FPNL as far as the bridge goes for their them to maintain because if we're not going to be Making use of the land and leaving it as is I don't want to keep paying for a bridge When we're not using where it benefits us none zero zilch and so I can't tonight agree to any sort of restrictions or anything because of the land already being utilized by FPNL. And that was kind of a joint thing between the city and FPNL many years ago. And so I just want to, I need to know how that's going to look and what that looks like before I can move forward with it. So, but I'm, you know, On the surface, I agree. I think we have gotten into the business of making sure that we're doing what's best for the residents and for our environment, and they're building like crazy out west, and so if we can preserve little pieces here on the east side of the county, then I support that, but I can't support it right now because of the condition of that land and what's on it right now.

with with respect for clarification what about the the Girl Scout Park discussion because I guess I guess the next step for me when I'm proposing it is a discussion for these two parcels separately same conversation I believe one is a little bit trickier as you mentioned one maybe not not so tricky and so what I'm looking for is just to have these conversations

I personally don't know anything about the girl. I must have missed that loop in the news, so I don't know anything about that parcel, and I would want to know what exactly it looks like, how it's deeded now, what its purpose is truly for, what the... why it was given to us. So I'm happy to continue having that discussion on both of those parcels and how it looks. But I don't, to be honest, don't know anything about that other parcel. It has not reached my emails.

It's right up against the houses in Chapel Hill that when you go all the way down, and it's literally right behind their yards.

Commissioner Cruz?

Thank you. So... Just to respond to a few of the comments that have been made, what I said is that everything has been stopped because that's what I was told by management. I have it in writing, so I would appreciate not taking my words out of context. I'm doing my job representing my district. I got a ton of emails, phone calls, text messages, and at the beginning, yes, in a general sense, I support building a new training facility. Until I started to hear resident input is when I really understood the way that the community feels and that the community does not want anything on that parcel. So after that, after I started receiving all of the communication, I started to do my due diligence, my homework. I spoke to our legal department. I requested a full title search of that land I read through all the documents. I received multiple memos from our legal department. I also spoke with the government affairs individual from FPNL, and all of those conversations led to having an update for the community, which was organized by the residents. My understanding is that the residents were asking for a more official town hall meeting, and my understanding, based on what a resident told me, is that the options that were given was the 12th of August, which would have been tomorrow, and residents were very upset about that. So residents decided to do their own meeting and I showed up to speak to them because I think it matters when you show up. With that being said, at the same time, hearing feedback, being able to talk to all of you, when I said everything's been stopped, I'm referring to the survey and all of the research and all of that work that was put into place and that is verbatim the information that I received from city management one of our deputy city managers. So I don't appreciate being attacked for doing my job. I'm gonna show up for my community always and I always have and I always will. And it was my intent to request a discussion to move forward with a protective covenant for this land. And you know, that's okay. Another one of my colleagues brought it up and that's okay. What matters is that we find a resolution to this and then we move forward. Thank you.

Any other comments?

No, I'd like to... Thank you. Let me jump in here about the Girl Scout Park. I've been sitting up here for almost 20-some years, and every year something comes up about the Girl Scout Park, about we got to do this, got to do that, and we haven't done anything in over 20-some years. And what we need to do is find out a happy medium, what we can do with this to move forward. I want to clarify, I was not attacking anybody. I was just saying what Channel 12 said when I was laying in bed and I said that a city commissioner from Boynton said, and I sat straight up in the bed. I said, whoa, did I miss a meeting? I'm not attacking anyone. Commissioner Cruz, I'm glad you're doing what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to listen to your constituents. You're supposed to do what they request of you. That's why you was put in office. That's what each of us sit up here for. And if we can't listen to our constituents, we have no business sitting up here. But we have to don't forget that we represent the entire city of Boynton. We represent one district, but we represent the city on a whole. I admonish you for doing what was right. But when you say that you guaranteed and guaranteed to me says that, you know, we already voted and I'm like saying, whoa.

Thank you. No problem.

I think that we can move on now.

Yeah, I'll make a motion to bring back two separate discussion items regarding each parcel individually and then maybe a scope of information that includes, you know, the differences. I know there's an FPL easement there as well. And then the Girl Scout, I think, is a little bit less complicated, so I'd like to have those conversations. I can appreciate, you know, the happy median. I know the residents there would like to maintain it as green space, and I would advocate for that. So I'm going to maintain my position on that, but have those conversations come back to us.

Can we just get a firm date? That way, if it is a discussion item, I'd like to... Sure, I'm okay with...

I'll say the next September meeting, because I know we're going to discuss the 18th later on in this agenda, and I want to make sure you guys have enough time to do your research on each parcel. I'll check with the legal... That's my motion.

Sure, on the legal end, it really depends on whether or not we need to order title work on the Girl Scout Park parcel. I already have it on... the FPNL Police training facility parcel if we need title work You're looking at seven to ten days on commercial for them to order and review it and then we need to analyze from there So potentially those a first meeting in September Okay understood.

Thank you.

Okay. We have a motion. Do we have a second?

I'm gonna second it with an unreadiness And my readiness is I want to tell the citizens who came out tonight, I want to say personally, thank you all for showing up. That is strength in numbers. We did listen to what you all said from your emails and et cetera. And we are following your lead, I'm just saying. And ever since I've been in point for over 70 some years, it has always been green space. And that's what I am going to maintain at this point. Thank you.

Okay, we have a motion, we have a second about adding these two items on the September agenda. All those in favor say aye. Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. We are now going to be moving on to public audience portion of the agenda. Any citizen may be heard concerning any matter? Yeah, we moved it here.

No, I have public comment on 2C. So we have the two items and then we'll go to public comment and adjourn. I check.

We're going to be moving on to item 3a then and public comment will come after. Who's going to be doing this?

Good evening, Commissioner, Mayor and Vice Mayor and Commissioners. I'm RJ Ramirez, I'm the Community Improvement Manager. So this is a CDBG grant that we gave from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The reason that we put into this special meeting was because this is due a HUD on August 15 and unfortunately we don't have a meeting. So I just gonna, I have a presentation, a presentation that is gonna run through it. So the city, oh thank you. So the city submits a plan to HUD. It started with a five-year consolidated plan where the city lays out what we're going to do with the next five years with the funds that we get from the feds. So this is the last year of the five-year consolidated plan. So we got about $532,187. So these funds come with different set-asides. pieces of pie that is split it on. So 15%, up to 15% can go toward public services to the community. Then 10% of it can go to planning and admin. And the remaining can go to either economic development projects, infrastructure, housing. So in this case, we do public participation. We did a meeting, a public meeting where members of the public put input into this plan where the money could go or should go. So this year, we kept these funds in-house because we got a letter from the Office of the President recommending the Senate to eliminate this program or other programs. And we didn't get any news from the federal government saying that we were gonna get this program until it was too late. Unfortunately, this program runs and grants runs in a schedule to be able to comply with them. So when we got that notice, it was, A LITTLE TOO LATE, NONETHELESS, PLANNING AHEAD, WE REACH OUT TO THE DIFFERENT CITY DEPARTMENTS WHERE THE DEPARTMENTS SUBMITTED SOME APPLICATIONS. SO THESE FUNDS ARE GOING TO BE DISTRIBUTED IN A DIFFERENT WAY THAT I'M GOING TO SHOW YOU HERE ON THE SECOND SLIDE HERE. SO LET ME JUST MOVE FORWARD HERE. SO, AGAIN, $532,187 THERE. And this one just explained pretty much this slide here, just explained about the 24 CFR regulation. I don't want to go into much detail on that because it's pretty much a self-planned authority. And like I mentioned, the different programs that can be utilized as funds, planning and administration, and economic development, and housing rehabilitation. And this next slide here, it shows how it's going to be utilized this year. So we're going to use $247,440 in affordable housing. We do housing rehab. We have a couple of programs. In this particular year, we're going to add a driveway. because the city passed an ordinance where some low-income individual can afford to add extra driveways to the home, and this year we're gonna go ahead and be able to tackle that, to be able to grant, put a program in place. We're gonna grant up to $10,000 to those homeowners that can't afford to, add that additional driveway to the home. So this is going to be part of the housing rehabilitation. In addition, also with these housing rehabilitation programs, well, we serve those elderly individual homeowners that are 62 year old and or disabled, where we put over up to $30,000 grand for the home repairs. And we do the windows, and we do the roof, we do accessibility, and we do all that kind of stuff. It's very popular among the senior population in Boynton Beach. We add this one. FUNDS FROM THE DEPARTMENT, THE CHIP PROGRAM, WHAT THEY CALL IT, FOR SURE, FUNDS THAT WE GET FROM THE STATE WHERE WE GOT UP TO $20,000 IN GRANTS FROM THE STATE PROGRAM. SO A SENIOR HOMEOWNER, WE CAN SPEND UP TO $50,000 IN GRANTS FOR THEM TO BE ABLE TO FIX THEIR HOME. IT'S A VERY POPULAR PROGRAM. A LOT OF SENIORS HAVE BEEN ASSISTED THROUGH THIS PROGRAM. SO WE'RE DEFINITELY MAKING A LOT OF CHANGES OUT THERE. In addition, we have the economic development. We assist in micro enterprises, those businesses that are centered in the Heart of Boynton. So we are assisting business with up to $20,000 grant to small business. So the catch is that the business have to have one to five employees, and this one is just not focused on the Heart of Boynton, but also to the rest of the community. as long as they're considered low-income, meaning that they are just better than scraping by and trying to survive. So these $20,000 assistance, we have assistance several businesses with that grant. So in addition, we also want to assist through the public sector part, public services. We want to assist, the library is one of the, department that is going to get some funding to assist those low-income individuals to be able to get their high school diploma. We're going to give them a scholarship to be able for them to get a scholarship, those low-income individuals that can't afford that. Let me jump to the next one here that is in detail here. So we're going to also use some of the fund, $20,000, to the World Age Program. That's also a training capacity for the small business and micro enterprises to be able to get some training through that. So it's called a CHIP. And it's a great program, once again, that is run by Economic Development Division through GEG there. And they're doing great changes. We have also $28,000 that's going to go to the Boynton Beach Police Department to assist those victims of violent crime where we can put them in a motel and hotel immediate shelter. And it's something that is also being assisted by quite a few individuals that unfortunately are going through these circumstances. Also, this program assists homeless individuals as well. And we pair this program with some chief funding through a rapid rehousing program that we assist homeless individuals to be able to find some permanent shelter, which is a program that also is very popular as well. And unfortunately, with the money that we get from the state, we wish we could do more But nonetheless, we assist as much as we can. So we give them up to $10,000 total rent that is paired with this other program that is run through the Boynton Beach Police Department. So one something to keep in mind is sometimes that, unfortunately, we can't assist some of the clients. There's all the citizens out there. It's because this program, they all have restrictions when it comes to income. So that's kind of very sad, broke my heart when I get individuals that are homeless that I dare have a job. and sometimes, unfortunately, they can't go through that threshold or income to be able to assist them, unfortunately. It breaks my heart. So we have a fair housing project. This one is a requirement for the city to have the fair housing key elements on the city because we get about $20 million in grants from the state that have to have the fair housing, which means that the legal aid society, we partner with the legal aid society. This year, we're gonna do a contract with them. We usually open it up as part of the nonprofit organization notice of funding, but this year we're gonna do a contract with them and is to be able to educate the public about the legal rights when it comes to discrimination on fair housing. So we do three workshops here at the community room every year. In addition, the Legal Aid Society do some legal representation to those individuals, especially elderly individuals that sometimes face discrimination from the either HOA or apartment building and everything. So Legal Aid definitely give them a great help there. I think that's it there. I have a question. Yes, yes, go ahead.

When you're talking about the unsheltered persons and victims of violent crime, does that include domestic violence victims?

Absolutely, yes, that's part of it. Yeah, so what happened with this program, how it got started is because It got to the point that police officers were getting money out of their pocket to be able to pay for hotel night when they find someone on the street in the middle of the night, 3 a.m. So with this program, we have a way for, or even, you know, sometimes victim of a violent crime get dropped at the police station, and then the police officer don't know what to do with this person, so with this program, They can find immediate shelter, a hotel. We got some vendors there that they can be placed on up to five nights until we can find all the account of resources, depending what the case may be, because each case is different. Sometimes they have to have the child protective service or whatever the case may be. Some of the people are also rated for have to be able to get a permanent housing and find different situations. So this program is very excellent, and I heard a lot of good comments about it.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Any comments or questions?

I have some questions. RJ, first of all, I want to say thank you. Tonight is the night that, like I said, a face with a name. I had three individuals that approached me. I was at a service, and they said that they was trying to reach out because they reached out and they haven't heard from you all, et cetera. I turned those names in to you, sir, and you did get right on it. You called them back, and I want to say thank you. Of course. The main thing that I'm worried about right now, brother, I want you to slow down. just a little and explain to me about the library. Yes, sir.

So as a matter of fact, do I have Tiffany here from the library?

She's back there.

All right, come over.

but I want to know what's going on because I've been visiting our library and we have a lot of things up there that needs to be put out to the public and I fell in love with the library so I want somebody to say it slow so I don't miss anything.

Absolutely, let's get it for Hans here, go ahead.

Hello, Tiffany Pagan, library director. So we have what is called Career Online High School. It's a online program for an adult 19 years or older. They have to have a library card and be a resident of the city. And what the scholarship will do, it will provide them 18 months to get their high school diploma.

Was that the same program that Jeannie Taylor was working with?

Yes. We've actually had this program for quite some time. We've had 34 graduates.

Thank you. I know. Thank you.

Great.

I just want to RJ thank you and thank you to staff. I'm glad you know over the years we've seen these funds go out to other not-for-profits and other people in the community and I know over the last you know probably two years we've really tried to bring it more in-house to really make sure that we're Controlling where the funds are getting used and to make sure that they're really being used And put back into the city and put back into our residence. So I just want to thank you and thank you to staff for You know for these You know for and you know the how the home rehabilitation program I know has been very successful and has been used by a lot of residents. So I know that that money will be gone in a minute. So I'm glad to see us bringing and keeping this in the city. I knew we had a lot of programs that could benefit from these funds. So I just want to say thank you, RJ, for all of your hard work and for staff for looking outside of the box on how we could keep these funds here in the city and have a little bit more control over where they go. So thank you.

Well, thank you. There's no other comments?

Motion to approve.

Second. We have a motion to approve resolution number R26-124, and we have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes unanimously. Next, we're moving on to 2B, discussion and consideration for moving the August 18th City Commission meeting to another day.

Go ahead. Yeah, we have the elections throughout the county and the state next Tuesday, so I just want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to be able to participate in their elections and then also be civically engaged at their local level. So I'd like to propose that we move the meeting to maybe the next day, Wednesday, or another date that this body decides.

Wednesday works for me.

Okay, we move it to the following week. On a Tuesday.

25th, I can't. Can't, okay. I can change some things around. I can do the 25th.

Yep.

If that's okay.

I can move some things around.

But then that means we have two meetings back to back, right? We have the 25th and then we have another one the first. Do we, staff is that?

I'm going to stack it up.

The agendas are... What about Thursday the 20th? Yeah, we front load a lot of the agendas. So it's just a notification and also making sure we can fit in the agenda review for you guys. I think the 25th would be possible because a lot of the agendas that we put together, we're probably two months out on some of those items. And the next meeting for September will be the 8th, not the 1st.

Okay. I'm okay with the 25th. No, it's on my calendar for the 1st. I'm in court all day.

The first Tuesday of the month is the first. Yeah, I have one on the first and... Maybe our calendars just need to be fixed.

But first, eighth, and 15th.

I have, yeah.

You have the first and the eighth and the 15th? Yeah. I'm not sure about the first, but eighth is the budget hearing.

Oh, okay. So maybe our calendar is just going to be updated with the budget hearing meetings. Yeah. Okay. So are we doing the 25th? That's fine.

25th and then we have the first budget hearing on the 8th. On the 8th. Yes. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay, do we like to make a motion?

Motion to approve moving the August 18th meeting to August 25th.

We have a motion. Second. And we have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay.

Motion passes unanimously.

We're now moving on to public comment. So if anyone would like to come down, any citizen may be heard concerning any matter within the scope of the jurisdiction of the commission. Speakers are limited to three-minute presentations. And we will start with you, Mr. Katz.

Is that on? On now? Okay, thank you. David Katz, Boynton Beach. Three weeks ago, I was very fortunate with two family members to have a tour of the real-time crime center. It was absolutely interesting, amazing, and as a resident, reassuring. We even got a demonstration of the drones. And I turned to the chief during the demonstration. I said, this is not your dad's police department anymore. And it's not. It's really amazing. A few days after having had the tour of the real-time crime center, I started thinking. And I took into consideration what had recently happened in Las Vegas. There's something that people, the residents of our city, should know about police officers. They, the police officers, know what people are capable of in ways that most, thankfully, do not. They have seen firsthand the cigarette burns on infants' back, or the black eyes and the sideways jaw on an 80-year-old rape victim, and they assume the worst. And they take that on so that good, decent, law-abiding people can go about their lives, think generously about their fellow man, That's a luxury that they provide. So I suggest that we all be thankful for their service. Thank you.

Next, please. Hi, I'm Stacy Deloy. I live directly across from the property that was being considered for the police training center. I came here tonight with several goals. First, I want to express gratitude to all of you for listening to us, for holding a town hall. We had 100 people show up. I've lived in Gulfview Harbor for 30 years and I've never seen that many people attend any meeting. People are passionate about this subject. I also want to thank you for committing to working cooperatively with us going forward on what happens on that property. We want transparency and we want to be included every step of the way and in return, we will work transparently and cooperatively with you. Finally, I also want to thank our Boynton Beach City Police Department for everything they do to keep our city safe. We know the risks they take and I want to commit to working in any way we can to help them get the facility they need in the right location. The property is still a rare gem despite the substation and the high voltage power lines. Every morning I see fishermen cast their lines in front of it. I watch Limpkin chicks learning how to fish for snails. I see osprey soaring. I watch a wood stork stirring up sediment. And sometimes at night I hear owls and chuckwills widows calling. It's special. I tell you this so you understand that I and my neighbors are really committed to preserving this green space. It's not just for us. It's for anyone who boats. and it's for our children and their grandchildren. I do though want to raise some concerns about how this process went. The city has been working on this going back to November and the community was never included in the conversation until after you committed to spending half a million dollars of our money. That's shocking to me. My second concern is that something this significant would, something, am I out of time? Okay, my second concern is that this was placed on a consent agenda and that none of you asked questions. You didn't ask who the other bidders were for the work. You didn't ask if the neighborhood had been contacted and you didn't ask about easements or deed restrictions. I am concerned that the property is deed restricted and it's loaded with easements and one of the most important restrictions is that the deed set from December 17th, 1996 says no permanent structures can be built on the property. Now, how could you get this far when the deed says that? And if this is a surprise to you, how could it be a surprise to you? Finally, I have an extreme concern that an effort is coming from members of your city staff to intimidate people in the neighborhood and our city commissioner by doing a records request for communications with us. It feels like harassment and intimidation and it should not happen.

Ma'am, your time is up.

So let's work together going forward. Thank you. Next, please.

Next, please. Susan Hoyer, Boynton Beach. So we have a mystery in our city, and that mystery is that we are missing a $100,000 piece of art. And I have been emailing back and forth trying to find out what the status is, and I'm not getting very far because I stopped getting responses. So what you are getting from me right now, the first... page front and back, explains the history of the Bloomer Tree piece of art. And I know some of you, like Commissioner McCray, the mayor, have been here for over 20 years. Commissioner Kelly's been here over 20 years, so you've seen this piece, you know this piece, but everyone else on the dais may not have seen this piece along the way. This is one of the most popular pieces in Boynton Beach that we ever got. It was worth $100,000 and was gifted to our city in 2015. And I'm worried because apparently, and I've included the other pages are all the email chain. I highlighted the dates for you and the times. So you can see that this piece apparently got decommissioned. It has been damaged multiple times. I'm worried because apparently it was put in a box in pieces and is allegedly by the amphitheater storage over here, but yet Public Works is saying they can't find it. So where is that broken $100,000 piece of art? that has been repaired a couple times because it was put in inappropriate places and allowed to be damaged over and over. And then someone has reached out to Rick Ballew, who is a local art expert. He's an art appraiser. He's an art seller. He's an artist. He has offered to take a look at and see if there's some way that he could fix it because he is the leading artist in his field in this area. And I'm not getting responses back. You'll actually see... The second page at the top is the most recent email I sent and it's the whole chain. You'll see I've never gotten a response to my last email asking to go see this piece and offering to buy, if I possibly could, the box of pieces because I hate to think that there's a $100,000 piece of art that's now missing in our city and no one seems to know or care except me. So I'm asking you, the commissioners, to ask the city manager to investigate this and find out where this piece is. This piece is beloved, and I know the mayor used to drive by this all the time. This piece sparkled in the sun every afternoon in front of the old city hall, and it was exceptional, and you can't find anyone in this city that's lived here for years that doesn't remember it and didn't actually love that piece. And let's find it. And if, you know, I'm willing to pay, you know, 100 bucks or something for a box full of broken pieces, as I understand that's what it is, but I would love to know what happened to this piece. It's always been my favorite piece, and I keep bringing this up and keep not hearing anything, so now I'm officially doing it. Thank you. Thank you. Next, please, sir.

Good evening, folks. My name is Dave Hoover. I'm a retired firefighter. My father was a law enforcement officer. Typically, training centers are not put near residential neighborhoods. They're normally put in commercial areas. If you look at all of the gun areas and shooting ranges, they're in commercial areas. Putting something like that this close to our neighborhood is going to interrupt our peace and enjoyment of our property. Please reconsider putting this training facility in a commercial area. I believe strongly in training. After 30 years in the field myself, training is what makes us automatic. Police officers need to be automatic with their weapons. Practice is essential. But this is the wrong place, both across from Bellevue Harbor or the Girl Scout camp. These are residential neighborhoods. They should remain quiet. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next, please.

I'm Susan Geary. I also live in Gulfview Harbor. And I just want to say, first of all, I want to tell Commissioner Cruz, thank you for coming out and seeing us when we asked for your district wanted somebody to speak with us. I would also like to commend the mayor for reaching out. Thank you very much. We're hoping obviously to get a chance to speak with you and the rest of the commissioners about this situation. That includes Commissioner Kelly, thank you very much for the nice email, and also Commissioner Turkin. I know we're very passionate about this, but we also are extremely passionate about the Boynton Beach Police Department. We really, really, really want our officers safe. I've seen these facilities across the country. I'm not begrudging that. They need this. It's probably a $25 million or more project, but they need it. And I do appreciate you. And we want to keep you safe and us safe too. So it's not the facility, as you know. It's the location. And we know that the property in Boynton is getting smaller and smaller and less that the city owns. We're very cognizant of that. But what we do have, we really would like to preserve. And this is in an odd spot. I do realize there's the bridge maintenance of 1952 as it was built and it's made out of concrete. I know it's being heavily used by FPL. I'm very well aware of that. More than I've seen 101 cars a day cross across that bridge. Not right. but we have to speak with our neighbors a little more about that, I think. I would really like to see us make a move, if we could, to take this property and put it more into a protective stance. I know you can't overturn the next commission, the next mayor, but if we could try to get some sort of restrictive covenant or a conservation, maybe the city attorney would be able to look into this. Look for there are a few more clauses that can be put in to protect this property And I think it would be healthy for the city And I know you got a lot going on with the AG reserve and you know, you got all sorts of stuff Why not? I wouldn't want to be in your shoes. I I agree with that, but let me tell you one thing This particular property is worth everything with what they're saying and you are currently looking into the Lennar development property you are considering whether the property contains threatened or endangered species, we would appreciate that too. People have seen gopher tortoises. They do have wood storks. We do have the Kessler Southeast. We've got an environment. So I really want this looked into a little more clear because once it's gone, it's gone.

Thank you.

And I want to thank you again.

Thank you.

Good evening, Commissioners. Justin Gilbert with Landmark Developers regarding the City View development, which is the elderly development that we proposed last year. And we got funding from Boynton Beach. Do you recall?

I do.

Okay.

I just wanted to give you a quick update. We did receive funding from Palm Beach County. So we are going to be moving forward with this project. We're expecting... Probably construction will be starting sometime in June, July of next year. I'm already in the second and third rounds of site planning with John Stout over at the building department and zoning department. So just to say they're doing great over there. They're very diligent on their comments and they've been very helpful. And we look forward to meeting with... With your staff regarding the funding agreement, we're hoping to get that funding agreement signed up this year because we want to move as fast as we can on this project. And I just wanted to come and say thank you all for your funding because without your funding, it wouldn't happen. So you were the first step, and we do appreciate everything you guys did for us on that. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please.

Good evening. Harry Woodworth, Boynton Beach. Do I an intervention I can't talk about the same thing that mr. Katz was speaking about the crime center Flock I'll use the word but I've been talking about all of the things flock acts on Fagas paradigm Redspeed and all the other stuff we bought we spent three point two million dollars on that stuff so far and Most of it was done quietly. First million disappeared without a sound. In March, you guys spoke up about the $7.7 million 10-year contract, put it on hold. In hindsight, probably not a bad decision. In June, you talked about $2.2 million. You made some changes from Flock to Axon for the drones. We don't have to all agree on that, but I would like to thank you guys sincerely for bringing up those two very uncomfortable conversations. I know they were uncomfortable for you because they're perceived as defunding the police. They are not. But that's what I know you have to deal with. So I appreciate you brought that up. Took a lot of courage. It brought a lot of transparency to something that is now you look around the country and you see has not been transparent anywhere. So you guys took the lead in March. You stayed on it in June. We don't have to agree on the decisions, but you had the courage to talk about it publicly with transparency and it's an unpopular subject and it's gonna get a lot more unpopular because now the public's woke up. Next week is awareness week. 20,000 people are gonna speak at commissions across the country about flock and a lot of them are misinformed. That's unfortunate. Just to be clear, it's not the technology. It's the misuse of the technology, the misunderstanding of privacy and freedom, and a whole lot of other things that we don't have to talk about here. Madison covered it 250 years ago. Read about it. I would like to say again that it's a hot topic. It's gonna keep coming up. I would ask you guys sincerely to stay the course like you have for this topic. Bring it up. It's uncomfortable as hell. Bring it up and talk about it and keep the transparency out there because it's gonna get a lot hotter than it is now. I don't know if you guys watch John Oliver. He took his whole show on August 2nd to that level. Every night on the network news, you now see a flock story, and it's gonna get a hell of a lot worse. The June Supreme Court hearing set a fuse on fire that'll probably burn out mid-28. when the Norfolk case makes the Supreme Court. But at the end of the day, please, please, please keep this a public, transparent conversation so we all come together on something that does not have to be divisive. And it's up to you and the citizens to not make it divisive. And that's all I'm asking tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please, on the right.

My name is Tony Senkar. For the past 21 years, I've lived directly across from the woods that are being proposed to be torn down. The number one reason why we bought our home was because of these woods. I think I can speak for both myself and our residents in that one of the things we love about Boynton is the parks and the designated green areas. There's a reason why we chose to live in Boynton Beach and not Miami or Fort Lauderdale. It was a punch to the stomach finding out those woods and the wildlife and birds we see in them every day may be taken away. I think it's important to say that I do support our police department and the job they do. I blame none of you for initially supporting this. In theory, it sounds great. You have a city manager telling you that this would be great for the police department and the city has a piece of land without anything other than woods to put it on. You would also naturally assume he did his job and would tell you that four of the acres are in fact deeded by FPL and restrict any permanent structure from being built on that land. You also wouldn't have known that these woods are one of the last places for wildlife to find shelter in East Boynton Beach. As they grew up, I taught my three kids to not only identify, but to appreciate the native birds and wildlife that live in these woods. Once these woods are gone, the wildlife is gone forever. Respectfully, any commissioner that says the city gets nothing out of this land is dead wrong. A city is more than just its buildings and its projects. Countless studies have expressed what nature and woods do for quality of life, including my own. To look at the water and woods while cooking or eating dinner with my family is priceless. Furthermore, as a realtor, I can state for a fact there is definitely going to be a price to pay for this gun range by our residents. Gulfview Harbor is a working-class neighborhood filled with teachers and first responders, among others, and this will destroy our property values. Whenever I show homes close to 95, one of the first things people note is the sound of the traffic. I've had numerous buyers tell me that they absolutely love a home, but they're not going to buy a home that has traffic noise right in their backyard, and that's all they can hear, and that's what will happen at Gulfview Harbor. These woods serve as our community's only buffer, both visibly and audibly, between 95 and the train tracks. We know this is going to be an uphill battle. We know our city manager is a retired police captain and does everything he can for the police department, no matter the cost. To be clear, this isn't a bad thing. However, in this case, there has to be better alternatives than taking away these woods from not only us, but future generations as well. I know from the actions of some of you, the residents are viewed as a bunch of rabble you must blindlessly listen to before continuing to have these woods torn down. I always loved the speech from Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life where he said, this rabble, the rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and the paying and the living and the dying in this community. Is it too much for us to ask to keep designated green space green and let us live in the community we all love without destroying one of the main reasons we all moved here in the first place? Huge thank you to Commissioner Cruz. I was at the meeting. She only said that the project was being stopped temporarily, and she was very clear that this isn't done, and that's why we're here tonight. But maybe with your votes, you can join with her and pass a conservatory for this and turn this permanently into a reserve. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next, please.

Hopefully I'll be able to see this. I pulled the wrong glasses. Good evening, Madam Mayor and honorable members of the City Commission. My name is Mary Small. I'm a Palm Beach County resident and president of the City of Refuge Incorporated Citizen Involvement Institute. I am here this evening to extend an invitation to preserve an important chapter of Boynton Beach history, not to revisit the past with blame, but to preserve it with honesty so that future generations inherit a complete understanding of the people, places, and events that shaped the city. Over the past several months, I have researched Boynton Beach history using the city's own historical records, municipal ordinances, archival materials, and other publicly available services. That research led me to ordinances 37 and 47, adopted in 1924, which established legally defined white and Negro residential districts. I also review Ordinance 136, adopted in 1933, which imposed a race-based nighttime curfew, restricting adults from entering the residential districts assigned to the other race, except under limited circumstances. These ordinances remain part of the city's historical record until this commission formally repealed them in 2024. As I continued my research, I found evidence suggesting that portions of the property occupied by the current City Hall campus may have once fallen within the boundaries of a former Negro district. Negro district in quotation marks. If that is correct, City Hall itself occupies land connected to an important chapter of Boynton Beach history. I respectfully ask the city to verify or refute that finding through its own historical and GIS analysis. Accordingly, I respectfully request the city commission direct staff to prepare an enlarged map of the 1924 Negro District overlaid on a current GIS map of Boynton Beach. Such a map would help the commission, residents, historians, and preservation professionals better understand the historic boundaries of the district and determine whether significant portions of the community, including public property, churches, schools, cemeteries, businesses, and surviving neighborhoods remain intact today. I also respectfully request that the Commission authorize a professional feasibility study to determine whether historically African American neighborhoods, institutions, and cultural resources qualify for designation as one or more local historic heritage neighborhoods, a heritage district, a heritage trail, or where appropriate, recognition through the State of Florida or the National Registry of Historic Places. The study should include historic research, GIS mapping, oral histories, public engagement and consultation with preservation professionals, neighborhood residents, churches, historians, educational institutions and community organizations. Thank you.

Thank you very much, sir.

Hello, everyone. My name is Hunter Sankar. I'm 16 years old and have lived my whole life across from the woods that you guys may tear down. I've been lucky enough to grow up where I do, and I'm asking that you guys work to save these woods so that other students and kids can appreciate the wildlife in the woods just as I have grown to do. I think it's important that you guys know what you could be destroying. In these woods, we've seen osprey, peregrine falcons, wood storks, blue herons, night herons, tri-colored herons, American kestrels, scrub jays, blue jays, cardinals, red-shouldered hawks, red-tailed hawks, roseate spoonbills, egrets, ibises, pileated woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, raccoons, opossums, gray fox, and even a bald eagle in these woods. Thank you for listening, and please help us to save these woods that have been such a big part of my childhood.

Thank you. Next, please.

Good evening, thank you for letting us speak for a moment. I am in the opposite side in Boynton-Leisureville, and I came here to support my Gulf View neighbors, who I spend a lot of time in their community raising money for the Boynton Beach Police. So I'm in favor of everybody, but I also know that we can't get out of our community anymore. I lived there for 24 years, and to get out of Southwest 18th Street or Campanelli to make a left is next to impossible without getting killed half the times because your life is totally in your hands. More traffic with a permanent building and amount of people that are going to be put over there if this goes through is going to be detrimental not only to Gulfview Harbor but to Boynton Leisureville that we had to put Speed bumps in because someone was hit and hurt really badly because the people come off 95, cut right through Woolbright, cut through 18th, not to have to go around Congress. With more traffic, that's going to be more of that going on. We can't put in gates because of the way our community is set up. We have so many entrances, we would have to have like eight gates just in the area where I live. So I just wanted you to know that I'm speaking both for the police, yes, they need training centers, not that one. I'm speaking for Gulfview Harbor, yes, because they're my neighbors. I go there all the time. We can't get out of our community to cross over there. So I thank you very much for your time, and please put this under really serious consideration because in Boynton Beach, Leisureville, are many elderly people. Many accidents have happened. They're simply walking their dog, and they're practically run off the road from people cutting through. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next, please. Sir.

Sir.

Hello, and thank you. Another resident of Boynton Beach in Gulfview Harbor. Can you say your name? Dan Adel. Thank you. So when we first moved there, down the canal, we live off the water, and we would boat down the canal. That's one of the reasons we purchased there, because of how special that area was. And in fact, along the canal, there used to be a lot of wildlife and a lot of interesting piers, and it was just beautiful. But then Lake Worth Water Management District came in. They said they had to clear all of that out, and all that beauty got scraped away, and now it's all clear. And we said, okay, it's for the greater good. We don't want to flood. And then years later after that, they did the same thing further down the canal, and there was a section of woods that were on the other side of 95, and they tore all of that away and took away all of that beauty for the greater good. And we said, okay, you know, it needed to be done. Then they built the sound barrier, but they didn't build it next to 95, which I didn't understand. They built it in front of the woods. And we said, okay, it's better that we can prevent the sound of this ugly concrete sound barrier versus having it next to 95. Greater good. And now here we are again, and it's, you know, slowly but surely, all of the exquisite and beautiful things that used to be part of our neighborhood are being stripped away. And I'm just like, when's enough enough? Eventually everything is just going to be commercial, parking lots, buildings, and we're not going to have any woods whatsoever. And it just makes me sad because it just changes the whole quality of life in our neighborhood. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next, please.

Hello, good evening. Alyssa Thorne. I also am from Gulfview Harbor, but I live on 27th Avenue, which is not quite across from the canal. I want to echo my fellow neighbors' sentiments that we agree that we do need this training center, and we're supportive 100% of the police department. My concern personally is a little bit different than all the other issues that we've addressed. I love nature. I love that my kids can go outside and see birds. I love my sense of community and I'm so proud of everybody who showed up last week. Living on 27th Avenue, I live on an artery that people cut through. And one of the reasons I bought my house 14 years ago was because it was a safe neighborhood. It is a very unique community because we have all sort of working class families that live there, but we have no sidewalks. I don't want to turn this into a traffic problem, but as somebody who's personally been hit by a vehicle while I was running with my kids, I cannot wrap my brain around adding something that is going to increase the traffic that's already there. We have noise, we have nature, we have the traffic, we have all these things into consideration. So I'm not saying that we don't want it, we just don't want it there. And I hope that we can be more collaborative together and have these discussions so you can see all the things that are truly going into this and not that it's a free land and we're paying for a bridge. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone online? No, Mayor, there's somebody online.

Great.

Quick. I just want to make a quick comment. I just want to say that I don't believe that the proposal to bring forward this police training facility was in any way malicious. It was something that we need, and that was land that was available. Unfortunately, we had to find out the hard way that it is not the right location, but I don't want the public to think that it's something that was you know, ill intent or something that, you know, during the town hall, you know, there was a comment about, you know, why do you guys keep coming back to Gulfview Harbor? It's not anything against Gulfview Harbor. It's just looking for a location where we didn't necessarily have to pay for land additionally, right? And one other thing I do want to clarify for the public is, with regard to public records requests is all of your elected officials, any communication that you send to your elected officials in writing and whether it's an email or a text message can be requested and that's just the law. So I'm just letting you know so that if you may have had a text message with me or whatnot, there have been a couple of neighbors that I did have text messages with that I informed, hey, I just want you to know that I got a request and I'm going to be submitting it because I think it's the respectful thing to do. I don't want to submit somebody's text messages without at least disclosing that to them. So that's the rule for everybody. That's just state law. Thank you.

Does anyone have any other final comments for tonight, for this meeting?

Motion to adjourn. Second.

We have a motion to adjourn and we have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes. This meeting is adjourned at 7.03. Staff will take a, how long do you need? 10 or five? 10 minute break. And the joint meeting of the City Commission and CRA will begin. Yeah.