City Commission - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the regular commission meeting this 04/21/2026. If the clerk could please call the roll.

Deputy vice mayor Markert? Here. Commissioner Malika? Here. Commissioner Cassell? Here. Vice mayor Burns? Here. Mayor Carney? Here. We have a quorum.

Thank you very much. If you could all please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Thank you all very much. Alright. Excuse me. I got my got my other agenda here because I got two, mine and theirs.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Next item is agenda approval. Mister Moore, you wanted to talk about item five a one?

I do. And that is I we were not prepared to talk about this evening. The initial genesis was to bring on board some external outside experts who can assist us in this consideration. So my interest is to get that all squared away and come back at another time.

So I'd appreciate that opportunity. Okay. That's fine. Are there anybody anybody else on any agenda item? No.

But, I mean, I guess we keep putting

things It is on yes or no.

And killing them off. And it's concerning.

His his call.

No change.

No change. Anything? No change for me. Commissioner Casal? No. Okay. Then I need a motion to approve the agenda.

Motion Okay. To

All at once.

Motion to approve is amended.

Okay. Any a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

It is adopted. On

one accord tonight.

That's right. So, we have presentations. First is the excellence in education award, and I see Janai coming up to guide us through this.

K. Good evening, mayor, commissioner, staff, families, and most importantly, our outstanding pacesetter students. My name is Janai Bowens, and I'm the education and external opportunities manager for the city of Delray Beach. It's a privilege to recognize our third quarter Pacesetter Awards recipients. This award honors students from across Delray Beach public schools who consistently demonstrate professionalism, accountability, engagement, and academic excellence.

To our pacesetters, your hard work has not gone unnoticed. You are leaders among your peers, and you represent the very best of what our schools and our city strives to cultivate. Keep pushing yourselves and leading by example. I also wanna recognize the parents, guardians, teachers, and school staff who support these students every step of the way. Your guidance and encouragement play a critical role in their success.

Students, tonight, we celebrate what you've achieved, but even more, we celebrate your potential. We are proud of you, and we're excited to see all that you accomplish in the future. If you are present when I call your name, please come to the front of the chamber so you can be recognized. From Atlantic High School, we have Rodin's Exelis, Hansel Jean Baptiste, and Brianna Bocamp. Bocamp.

Sorry. From

Carver Middle School, we have Wazleen Zumar, Dollywood Florist and Naika Josephat.

Okay. We got one here, please.

From Banyan Creek Elementary, we have Kai Vilme, Henley Resnick, and Shadwick Estella. From Plamosa School of the Arts, we have Charlie Berekha Garcia, Amaya Finney, and Naden Stilzini.

From

Pine Grove, we have Rose Exenore, Anthony Jeter, and Maya Toledo Vasquez. From SD Spady Elementary, we have Collin Mallard, Coralie Joseph, and Joel McMahon. From Village Academy, we have Paris Small, Sancino Eugene, and Joanna Jabouin. And from Orchard View, we have Lucia Cabba, Daisha Lewis, and Jasmeeny Masodon Fadu. Congratulations to each of our third quarter Pacesetter Award recipients.

Keep setting the pace.

I got a trick for you, mister Wu. Where

my brother used

to I gotta show you that. My brother was

the first sportscaster hired by CNN. He used to have this he had various coats and ties and shirts and everything, but he did the his sports show like, 07:00 in the morning. Yeah. So he would show

and that's where they did the before they had the plastic desk like right here. Yeah.

Where they

can sell. They sit behind him and he'd be wearing his gym shorts.

And then after he does

the show, go over a trick I gotta show you. And he would just hang up his coat and his shirt

and make it It's worth the wait.

Great. Thank you very much. I'd like to welcome, Rhonda Geiger from the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics for her she comes regularly to to keep us straight and narrow. But I would welcome to, yet again, to the Delray Beach City Commission.

Thank you very much. Rhonda Geiger with the Commission on Ethics. Nothing like showing up from the commission after that moment of joy, so thanks for that scheduling. Great. But I am here, as always, just to remind you that we are here as the commit the commission is here. We're here to answer questions for you. We're here to answer questions for you. You know, just briefly, briefly, we do like to remind people that faith in local governments in governance in particular is what keeps our public engaged. Once they lose faith, they stop showing up, and nobody wants to see an empty chamber. That is what means that we have people that care and the people that we represent, are you know, that we're here for them.

Not that every decision they're going to agree with, but hopefully, having commission the commission on ethics just reassures them that if don't agree with it, you are doing it in the best interest of the city and not the best interest of yourself. Just real quickly, I would like to remind you guys, everybody that and everybody here too. We a lot of times get questions or concerns about things that have occurred on the dais or with not necessarily this commission, but with every commission. And a quick little thing that we run through before we determine whether not there's a conflict, just so everybody knows this, we look for three things. Number one, is there a prohibited entity involved?

Number two, is there a financial benefit? And number three, if there's a financial benefit, is it special? And that's all defined in the code. I've left code books here. I'm happy to leave more pocket guides. But we have to have all three of those things before we're ever going to have a prohibited act. So make sure that you do that checklist to determine whether you should be doing something and you guys can do that checklist to determine whether or not you actually have a valid complaint or a valid issue. We have to have all three of those things. You want

to run through those again?

I sure will. We have to have a prohibited entity. So that's a list, again, that's in the code. I'm going to spare

We you guys all from

have to have a financial benefit and then that financial benefit has to be special, which means it has to apply to a small enough class. So like an example I would use is if you guys are voting on something that that impacts the city, you might receive the same break. You're let's say somebody wants to reduce everybody's property taxes by a thousand dollars a year, and you're going to risk right. But you're gonna receive that benefit. Can you vote on that? You're gonna receive the benefit.

It's not a special benefit.

Because it's not special. It's financial, but it's not special. Now if you did that and said I want to reduce just my neighborhood's property taxes and there's 20 entities, Now we have all three entities. We have a prohibited entity or all three, categories. We have a prohibited entity. We have a financial benefit, and it's special because of the size of the classes under 100.

Alright? Okay.

Got it.

Any questions?

Any questions? I have a couple.

Okay. And if you

could But, Commissioner Casal, did you have any questions? Okay. I had a couple. I spoke to you on the phone Mhmm. Of course, because there's three questions that get circulated all the time that I'm hearing all the time. One of them was actually brought up about me at one time, but not not necessarily so I'm gonna deal with it. If you are a registered agent for a company, and we I know I got an ethics opinion on this, which said which went through with the whole thing. But there has been some confusion as to when you serve as a registered agent, whether or not there's a conflict of interest. And I from what I'm remembering from what you told me that if if you're a registered agent at the time of the vote, then that's clear. That's a conflict. But at what point is it not a conflict?

The second draw of the speech. That's that's Yeah.

Okay. That that's correct.

It's I know the answer, but I'm I'm trying to get something

on just the record here. Talking up.

I know.

Well, I

I mean, I'll hand it off. Yeah. No. Yeah. Once you divest yourself from that, that there are many once you divest yourself from being a registered agent, once you divest yourself from the business, once you divest yourself, from any own an ownership entity in anything, it is it is immediate. We do, in fact, tell people that, when they're contemplating things that, yes, you can do that. You can run for this office, but you will have to divest yourself from this business. So that's the advice we give people. Once you've divested yourself from that business, what component are we missing? We're missing the the prohibited entity because council members can't take actions that bring a special financial benefit to a prohibited entity.

One of those prohibited entities would be their outside business. So once that is no longer your outside business, we no longer have a prohibited entity to be concerned with.

Yeah. And I mean, I I I as a particularly registered agent, which is a ministerial job, I mean, it's not like you okay. You understand that. Please explain, if you can, when I mean, we there's there's that other floating around thing out there that's called the perception of a conflict. Please explain how and what you look for when there is a what you what one would say is a perception of conflict.

Well, first off, I'm going to say that everything that I have just said is based and operates on the belief that nobody is engaging in any dodgy behavior. This the the code never allows corrupt misuse of office. The code never allows a quid pro quo. You know? There's no tit for tat. You can't engage in an act for another act. That's always going to be prohibited. So that as the basis of my answer to your question, you are allowed to recuse yourself. And the the simplest example that I can give is, like, your best friend is not a prohibited entity. Right.

But let's say you're in business with your best friend, and everybody knows you're in business with your best friend. And you divest yourself of that business, but you haven't divested yourself of that best friend. And your best friend comes before you on a on a proposal, let's say. What are we do we have all three of the things we're looking for here? No. We don't have a prohibited entity. Your best friend is not a prohibited entity, and you've divested yourself from that business. Does it have the potential to look a little dodgy? Maybe. So we would say in that situation, if you feel that there's going to be a perception of a conflict of interest that you you you are allowed to recuse yourself.

It's not compulsory, but you are allowed to, and people may understand why you do that. So that would be example an

that I One of things that counsel explained to me was we're you're not just allowed to willy nilly, recuse yourself. You have to vote unless you do have a voterified

You can't just be uncomfortable. You have to say yes. You can't just willing I mean, you can't just pick and choose how you participate in your elected office. There has to be something that you have an honest belief, a true belief that it would be a perceived conflict of interest.

So it's not somebody else's perception. It's your own perception. It's it's it's a subjective decision made by the by the

Well, I I mean, I guess it's going to be on a sliding scale. Yeah. We can't we can't we don't know why you believe it is. So this is again, we're gonna go back to good faith,

you know, just like most

lawyers, we're rely on that. So we're gonna use your good faith.

And I wanna segue into something that I'm not we're not we're discussed. Oh, great. Campaign campaign at what point because everyone says, oh, that person gave you $500. Now, you could spend 10,000,000 in your campaign, but it's the $500 if that's the question. So at what point do campaign contributions become part of the mix in terms of when does it is it a conflict? I mean, I know statutorily it doesn't seem to be a conflict.

Under the code of ethics, as long as it's a lawful campaign contribution, it's not. Again, this is advice on the premise that you're not doing anything dodgy. If you do something dodgy, it is going to be

an That's a quid pro quo that we understand.

Quid quo. Right. So as long as there's no quid pro quo, we don't, we don't comment or legislate, lawful campaign contributions.

I I I appreciate your answering my questions and another one of these practical guides. Is there are there any changes from the last one you got? So I don't have to red line this one. No.

If you can just I I just had things to pass out and I wanted to make sure that, you know, you guys had some gifts that you could make sure you don't have to fill out a gift form for. Had to keep it under that $100 limit.

Well, yeah. Yeah. This could be very valuable, though. So I don't

It is it is not.

Any other questions for anybody? Then miss Greager, thank you very much for taking the time again to address us.

Of course. We're always here, as you guys know. Hopefully, everybody knows how to get ahold of me.

I just wanna make sure that when I call, I'm calling you and you're not calling me. That's all.

Well, you know, could maybe I just wanna see how your commission how your meeting went.

There you go.

There There

you go.

Thank you.

Tune in. Thank you very much.

You're welcome. Thank you.

We have a financial financial review of the fiscal year ended September 2026 presentation by mister Henry Dockowitz, and there you are.

B

Y O C Henry. Bring your own clicker.

That could be a

conflict. Rhonda or not? Yes.

By the way, those questions have nothing had been on

the conference over the weekend. I don't know.

I was actually a little.

It's a call. Just a click.

Good evening, mister mayor, commissioners, city manager, city attorney. So we're presenting tonight the tentative full year results for fiscal year 2025, still subject to audit. We're in the final stages, final testing of the audit. There may be adjusting or correcting entries recommended by the auditors that we may adopt. As of right now, when we look at all funds, just to give a recap for that fiscal year, the general fund had a budget of $164,200,000 final amended budget of 166,000,000 The other funds, enterprise funds and capital improvement funds, were generally based on rollovers where from the prior year, there were monies that were not spent and it increased this year's budget.

You have the other services, debt service, CRA and DDA. So although the general fund was looking at $166,000,000 the total for the entire city was $634,000,000 When we look, now we're going to go into the general fund. No, I went too far. Looking at the general fund revenue by type. So looking at taxes, which came in just about on target, that's 65% of our revenues.

Most of the numbers came in Okay. The $8,400,000 is the end of the budget where we want to balance the revenues and the expenses. And we plan for an $8,400,000 drawdown from prior year's reserves to balance the budget if all the revenues come in as expected and all the expenses are consistent. The reason we have a negative balance here is because we did not draw down anything. When we finished the audit, the last entry made to the books to balance it out is a drawdown of reserves.

What this shows is as of now, we did not take that drawdown. So we are on the revenues short $10,500,000 from the budget. When we look at general fund expenditures by type, you see that we generally have favorable balances variances, personnel services, operating expenditures for a total of $8,300,000 If that holds up, we won't need to draw down from the reserves. When we look at general fund expenditures by department, I'll point out number one on the hit parade is Chief Ron Martin of Fire. This is still accommodating the shifts, but he came in with a 3.9 favorable variance for the year.

Parks and rec has several different categories. Combined, they were 2,000,000 favorable, and IT was 1,100,000 favorable. Net for the whole city, we're looking at that 8.3% favorable variance on expenses. When we say favorable and it relates to expenses, it means that our actual $180,800,000 is less than the budget was, dollars 189,200,000. We look at the projected reserves.

We started the year so that would be the fiscal year ending September started the year with $50,780,000 in reserves. Projected revenues of 178,000,000 and projected expenditures of 180,000,000 we would have a deficit, a proposed deficit of 2,170,000. If that goes through, then we would have projected reserves at the end of the year, 09/30/2025, of $48,600,000 According to the calculations the commission has agreed on when testing the reserves, we look at the adopted budget of $2.00 $1,000,000 minus transfers. So that's about $195,100,000 and the $48,600,000 would be 24.79 percent of that total, which is within the range that we talk about for our reserves. Looking at general fund revenues now for the first quarter, we have a lot of timing issues.

Taxes so what we do is we look at the first quarter and we basically take 25% of the annual annual budget, that's how we go from $1.32 to 33,000,000, we've already received 97,900,000. That's just we got the taxes sooner than 25% in this quarter. That'll flatten out as we go through the year. Operating no, here we are. General fund expenditures for the first quarter.

Operating expenditures were about on target, 15.67%, but some of that is also timing. A question of maybe well, these are expenditures. I was doing revenue. Sorry. This is the first quarter.

The revenues came in much higher. Charges for services, just about on target. Miscellaneous revenues, intergovernmental revenues, slightly below that 25% measure. Net bottom line, we're ahead of the first quarter, but we monitor it department by department and line by line to make sure it's only timing differences. If we have a slowdown of revenue, if we have an increase of expenses, we try to get on top of it earlier.

Looking at general fund expenditures for the first quarter, CRA grants and aids, the reason that's unfavorable is we've spent the money rather than throughout the whole year. Again, it's primarily timing. And with the other services, personnel services, primarily those were vacancies in the police and fire department, which we know about. Maybe their overtime will be higher. But that may persist depending upon when we hire replacements.

So basically, we're 12.9% unfavorable, but that's timing and that should clear up in future quarters. Here we look at the expenditures by department. Again, those transfers are the first one. That was the rollovers, so unfavorable. Everything else looks to be right on target.

And we look at combined public works, the second asterisk. It includes engineering and the parking facility. Parks and rec, the first asterisk, includes line items known as recreation facilities, special events, cemetery, and other recreational facilities. We've combined this for the presentation based on who's responsible for those kinds of line items. Now we're looking at the full year.

We're looking at adopted budget. And then in '25, the fiscal year variance for the year, looking at all the funds, not just governmental funds. So we've looked at the governmental funds of revenues were below expectation by 10.5, but they were favorable on the expenditure side. Similarly, special revenue funds, the unfavorable revenues are offset by more than that amount on favorable expenditure variances. Capital funds, we don't have all the revenue, but we have favorable on the expenditures by 99,000,000.

Enterprise on the other hand is ahead both on the expenditure control and on the revenue to a tune of almost 160,000,000. Internal service funds down by 4,000,000 on the revenue but up by 10,000,000 on the expenditures. So when you look at the net, the revenues were short by 147,000,000 but the expenditure control had a favorable variance of $290,000,000 quarter all funds. Looking at all the funds, and again a lot of this is going to be influenced. It's only the first quarter but the timing.

Looking at the bottom line, revenues are $31,000,000 ahead. We knew most of that is real estate taxes. And expenditures are favorable by $88,000,000 But I would expect those variances to go towards zero, both of them, over the next couple of quarters. And I didn't have the slide that said questions. I'm sorry.

No. Right.

Thank you very much. Are there any questions for mister Takowitz? Hearing none. Sorry? Not

at the moment, but I'll probably call you

tomorrow. Reserve the rates.

We'll be

visiting your witness.

Yes. We're gonna be visiting again on seven a, right? So you're coming back?

You find any lost money?

Thank you very much, mister Duckworth. Five a three, clarity regarding legislative funding and appropriation request processes. Wait.

You skipped four a d.

Wait a minute. Sunshine law. I apologize. I apologize. You're out. I worked

so hard

on this.

You're out.

Sunshine law presentation.

I forgot to wear my Little Miss Sunshine shirt. So we're going to talk about the Sunshine Law, which is Florida Statute two eighty six. We do this pretty much annually. So this is a review for most of you and maybe a little bit of an education for the members of the public. So what is the Sunshine Law?

The Florida Sunshine Law, like I said, is codified under two eighty six and it's really the public meeting and public records requirement. It's it serves to promote transparency and accountability for both elected officials like yourself as well as our appointed officials. So, little bit of history. So, I put this on there because, you know, everybody knows Florida is a sunshine state. Actually, Florida was the first state to come up with a sunshine open records law and that happened in 1909, with the first rendition of the public records law. Obviously, was a little bit different then because we didn't have Internet and social media and things like that. It was probably easier. But that rendition has changed over time. It's morphed. In 1967, we have the government in the sunshine law, which is the one that we have today.

And in 1990, there was actually a voter referendum where the voters were given the right to make the right to access the government a constitutional right that we all enjoy. So that's a little bit of

the history of the sunshine.

So who does it apply to? So like I said, it applies to both elected and appointed boards. Commissioner Moloka, when you were elected to office, it actually started applying to basically on that day that you found out

that you were a commissioner.

So a lot of people don't know that. They think it's when you take office. But really, once you become a commissioner elect, that's when the Sunshine Law triggers. Fact finding or information gathering committees, they have to be strictly fact finding. They can't make recommendations or prepare reports. But those fact finding committees and information gathering committees, they're not subject to Sunshine. And we're going to talk about some other exceptions to the Sunshine Law. Advisory committees, which are those committees that you as elected officials appoint that recommendations. Make So even though we all know Planning and Zoning Board, Historic Preservation Board, they are tasked with responsibilities, but they're typically not binding. They can be appealed and things like that.

Those boards also must operate in the sunshine, which is why we have them generally meet in this chamber so that it's very clear that their meetings are going to be subject to all the sunshine requirements. So there's basically three legal requirements to the sunshine law. First, the meeting must be open to the public. You you can't have meetings at the police department behind a locked door, right? It has to be open for the public to be able to generally enter. You have to give reasonable notice of the meeting to the public. And we'll talk about what reasonable means in just a minute. And then meeting minutes must be taken. So open meetings. This is probably the one most controversial aspect of the Sunshine Law.

What is a meeting? A meeting can be a formal or informal gathering of two or more members of the same board. So it would be between the five of you. So obviously, you could meet with members of the Planning and Zoning Board. You can go to lunch with them. You can talk about business of the city because that's not a sunshine violation. The sunshine applies to the five of you. And so you always have to be mindful that when you're in a public place, when you're seen together, unless that meeting has been properly noticed that you're not discussing the official business of the city or something that can reasonably come before the commission. Official business is any topic that could reasonably come before you. So it's the foreseeable things, right?

It's those things that you know are coming up on an agenda because we've discussed it and you've directed staff to place something on an agenda. You can't discuss how you're going to vote on something with your All those conversations take place here in this room because the public has the right to have access to the information on how you vote, why you vote, and the discussions that you have when you vote. And like I said, it has to be take place in an open properly noticed meeting. The next thing is reasonable notice. So Florida Statute 166.0401, it gives us a little of guidance.

It typically relates to the adoption of ordinances and resolutions and the parameters that we have when we're going to go through that process. Our meeting agenda constitutes notice. You know, we publish it, the clerk puts it on the website, typically agendas are posted outside on the bulletin board of City Hall, so that is considered notice to the public. And sometimes you see, you know, when we do mailers, when they do those big poster boards on property, those are all different versions of notice. Our local rules also provide guidelines on notice because, as you know, sometimes we have special meetings, we have emergency meetings, and then our regular meetings.

And so the notice has to be consistent with the circumstances of the meeting. So if you need to have emergency meeting, you know, remember in COVID we were having a lot of emergency meetings and special meetings, that does not require the same notice that we have for meeting agendas. Our meeting agendas are typically posted a week before the meeting to give the public to review the agenda. But if you're going to have an emergency meeting, that typically is usually you can give three hours notice because there's typically a sense of urgency associated with whatever the basis for the meeting is. And again, you would find that under our local rules.

Meeting minutes. So this this is also sometimes a source of a little bit of controversy. A verbatim transcript is not required. So the law doesn't say that the city clerk is responsible for acting like a court reporter who's going to take down everything. It's generally a summary of what happened at the meeting, how people voted and comments that were made. So really summary of notes and notes are of the proceedings is going to be sufficient. I always like to mention this because a lot of times you might hear complaints. Oh, the meeting isn't being streamed. You're violating Sunshine. There's no video.

That's actually like a fringe benefit that the city provides. There's no legal requirement to stream our meetings. Obviously, it annurs everybody's benefit because it adds to that access to the public. It allows people to watch the meetings if they're not able to come to the chambers. But there's no legal requirement under Sunshine that our meetings have to be streamed or even videoed. The only requirement is the meeting minutes have to be prepared and open to inspection to the public. And as you know, on pretty much all of your agendas, you have to approve your meeting minutes. So prohibited communications. So as we said, private discussions with each other outside of the sunshine are prohibited. How can those communications occur?

Okay. So the easy one is in person. You guys are standing in the parking lot right before a meeting and you're going to discuss, and I shouldn't say you guys because two elected officials are outside in the parking lot and discussing, how they're going to vote on a certain item that's on the agenda. That's prohibited. That's an easy one.

Telephone, calling each other is another prohibited communication. The email is the one that's always the most concerning because it's the easiest one to substantiate, right? And so while you are permitted to send each other FYI emails, the best practice is not to do that. The best practice is to save it for a meeting and he may give handouts to your colleagues during the meeting and have those communications in this room. Because if by accident, somebody hits reply all, great email, mayor. I agree with you. I I'm gonna vote along with you.

Yeah. Are you paying attention, everybody? Okay. Go ahead.

Go ahead.

Which part? The great email part? So that that's gonna be a violation of Sunshine even on social media. So, you know, sometimes your constituents will tag commissioner Molica. Commissioner Molica, how do you feel about this? If commissioner Molica responds and then commissioner Casal says, I don't agree with her. She's wrong. We have now a violation of the sunshine. And remember, with public records, once it's up there, we can't delete it. It's it's actually a formal record of the city.

And then text messages, another another way, you know, sometimes we get involved in these group chats where there's a lot of people communicating. And even though a lot of the information may be informational, it could lead to a a sunshine violation which we always wanna be mindful of. Intermediary. So the sunshine law contemplates p go betweens. Right?

If you have mutual friends, if you have mutual colleagues that, you know, pass along information that those people who are not members of the board, they can create a sunshine violation for you. So it's improper for intermediaries, mutual friends of yours, to communicate business related matters. Not, you know, what the weather is today, but clearly something that's coming before the commission in the foreseeable future that they're communicating back and forth. Somebody commissioner marker tells a colleague how he's gonna vote on something that person repeats it to vice mayor Burns. That's going to be an intermediary and that's prohibited.

Polling staff, you know, where you're going over agenda review with one of the directors and the you say the director, oh, did you talk to the mayor about this? What what are his thoughts on it? If that person tells you the mayor's thoughts, that's considered an intermediary and a violation of the sunshine. So email disclaimers. I know I've spoken to all of you about putting a disclaimer on your email.

Again, the best practice is not to send emails to your colleagues. You know, some of it is informational, some of it is an FYI, but we always want to be mindful of the sunshine. You do choose to do that, you should always have some type of disclaimer on your email essentially saying, I'm sending this for informational purposes, do not reply all. So as I stated in the beginning, there are exemptions to the Sunshine Law. We talked about the fact finding committees. They have to be strictly fact finding. They don't make any recommendations. At least four of you have participated in collective bargaining sessions where we have executive sessions. We meet in the backroom. Sometimes we start in here and then we go to the backroom.

But those executive sessions with collective bargaining, those are not subject to sunshine. And I think the public policy purpose behind it is because we want you to have a free flow of of information, of communication on what you wanna see in a collective bargaining contract without fear that, you know, that that information is going to be misinterpreted or repeated or things like that. We want to have those honest open conversations about the vision that you see policy wise for collective bargaining. And then the client sessions. Those are limited to litigation strategy sessions where we talk about how we want to defend a case, do we want to go to trial, do we want to settle the case, or if we want to talk about potential settlement of the case, those are done outside of the sunshine.

The difference between collective bargaining and attorney client sessions, and you'll you'll know this when we'd have these sessions, is that with an attorney client session, those have a court reporter. And so the law says that after a case is settled, it's resolved, it's gone through the appellate process and it's over, those transcripts are public records. And so the court reporter basically gives it to us under seal and once the case is formally closed, then, those transcripts can be released to the public. Collective bargaining executive sessions, we don't have court reporters in there for the reasons that I discussed earlier. Exemptions can only be created by the legislature.

We as a commission and as your attorney, we can't come up with our own. They're very limited. They're very It's essentially these three exemptions. And we always have to be mindful that when we're in those sessions, whatever the subject matter is, we can't veer off of it. So if we're talking about a litigation case, we can't talk about another case that we're going to be it's very, very limited because if you do discuss things that are not the subject of the closed session, that is a sunshine violation.

So there are penalties. Florida law, you can institute a civil action against someone if you believe they committed a sunshine violation. There are also criminal penalties. It's considered a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable by up to sixty days in jail and a $500 fine if the violation was knowing, like you knowingly violated the Sunshine Act. And, it can also be subject to, suspension or removal by the governor.

So what are the takeaways for today? Sunshine Law is a constitutionally recognized right of access. Social gatherings, you can go to lunch, you can go to dinner, you can go to charity events. The only, prohibition is that you should not be talking about city business. If your meetings luncheons are noticed, your charity events are noticed, and we try to do that if we do know that the commission is going to be at the same place, we typically will notice it in an abundance of caution.

Not that we believe that you're going to have lunch with one another talking about city business, but because of the perception of it, right? If people see two of you together, we want to dispel any suspicion that there could be some type of violation of law. And the clerk is wonderful and she will always take care of those notices for us. You can speak to members of your appointed boards. There's no prohibition on that unless you're the mayor and you're an ex officio member of a board.

So the mayor is an ex officio member of the DDA. He cannot talk to those board members outside of the sunshine about official business of the DDA. Again, discussions during closed meetings are limited to the subject matter that is basis for the exemption and secret ballots are not permitted. So sometimes when you vote on things up here, even if we use a ballot, it will have to have your name and however you voted because by failing to do so, that is considered a violation of the Sunshine Law. And I just I found this quote.

Judge Corey Sickland is one of our fourth DCA judges, in Palm Beach, and I just thought it was a great quote. It's it's like the mantra. When it when in any doubt as to whether a meeting or communication, either directly or indirectly, between two or more governor government officials may be illegal under the Sunshine Law, the easy answer is Leave. And that's it. And then you don't have a problem. Right? And that's it.

Thank you very much for the illuminating presentation. Commissioner Malik, you're the newest one. Do you have any questions of the group?

No. I do not.

Commissioner Marker? No. Commissioner Casal?

No. Thank you.

Commissioner Burns?

Absolutely.

I have, of course, a couple of questions. So Judy Maliker goes on social media and says, I hate to have white fences on blue houses. I'm never gonna allow a picket fence in the city. As long as Tom Marker doesn't say, hey, wait a minute. I love picket fences in the city. She's allowed to express an opinion on social media, but one of us cannot respond to that thing. So that is not a violation for her to give an opinion on something, even if it should be coming in front of the commission.

Yes. It's not a sunshine violation, but remember, if it's quasi judicial Right. No. You have to keep up.

That's separate issue. That's separate issue. Whether or not you prejudiced your whether you're showing a prejudice to vote on something, that's a separate issue.

But it is not a sunshine resolution.

That's correct. Alright. The two the the concept of two or more because we've all gone to things where the city clerk sends out a notice. Two or more commissioners may be at this event. If there's if it's noticed and two or more people are there, can you then talk about city business?

You can. And but I said the the reason why we typically do it is the perception.

No. I'm saying, but I think the rule says if the it has been noticed. We all go to a charity. The three of us go to a charity event. So it's been properly noticed that Mark, Molica, and Carney are gonna be at this event. We start to talk at the at the visit. Well, what you think of this? Technically, that's not a violation.

Right. It's it's not a violation. I would say it's not a best practice.

I've it's clearly not a best practice, but I'm just making sure that it's not a I'm just trying to clarify for people what the law says. Right. Because people throw around, oh, this is a violation, which, as you pointed out, it's it could be a jail. You can get dismissed. You can get, you know

And I can I just say something about that? I feel that we also we need to be mindful because throwing out an allegation that somebody violated a law, a law that can subject you to removal, that can subject you to criminal penalties, and that could also be a civil action, I think we need to be mindful that because that leads to defamation. And so I think we need to be mindful, even saying that something is a charter violation. I think we just need to be very careful on those types of things. If you believe that somebody violated the Sunshine Law, there's recourse.

There's things that we can do to address it, make sure it doesn't happen again. And obviously, if you feel it rises to the level of a criminal charge, you can report it. But I feel that when people and that's why I want to always notice when I know that you're going to be together because I just feel that the go to is to make an allegation against someone that's damaging to somebody's reputation, damaging to the city's reputation, and just not a good look for an elected official, especially when you did nothing wrong. And so I just feel that it's just easier to notice it. I know you. I know that when you're enjoying a nice night out, the last thing you're talking about is this. But for perception's sake, I just think it's a better course.

And the last thing is it has to do with this disclaimer. Because I have seen articles which I'll send to you on a matter, and I'll copy all of you. And I'll say, please do not respond. I guess the disclaimer works. But you're saying that the best practice would be not to send it at all?

I would say the best practice is to either

And sometimes I'd want my colleagues to see what I'm reading so that they

Sure. But again, if it's something that croquet, right, you want your colleagues to have the information that you have. What I think is a better course of action is that it should go through the manager review the information and if he feels that it's something that would be helpful to your colleagues, he can send it out because he and I aren't subject to the Sunshine Law. But the concern is when the mayor sends it out because it's giving an impression that you're trying to influence the information that your your colleagues receive, and that's what we really want to avoid. It really should go Understood. One of

You make that makes perfect sense. Great. Any other questions? Thank you very much for the presentation. My pleasure. Four e, the Florida recovery obligation calculation, the FROC calculation. Here we go, the chief. Very good then. Thank you for the update. Very well done. Good

evening, evening, and thank you, mister mayor, honorable commissioners, mister Moore, madam city attorney, and madam clerk, as well as the community. For the record, Ronald Martin, fire rescue chief. And with me this evening, I have David Garcia, assistant chief. Tonight, it's my distinct honor and privilege, and I'm truly excited about something that that really matters a lot to the city of Delray as a village by the sea and a coastal community to present to you a program that we're intending to participate on called the Florida Recovery Obligation Calculator. You'll hear a lot of it over the next couple of years. So the short version of that is FROC. To give you the details, I'm gonna turn it over to assistant chief Garcia.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor, commissioners. So FROC is a system that was launched by the Florida Department of Emergency Management, in 2023. And, the the biggest purpose of this was to sponsor a program that would standardize documentation and the process on how to recover funds or just, in general, recover from a impacted event, whether it's a hurricane or whatever that may be.

Just make sure it's working. Okay. Perfect.

So what is FROC and and what do we have to do? So FROC is a optional opt in program. And just for a quick a timeline view, this would be a process for over a year. We would have to opt in to a disaster readiness assessment, which is known as the DRA. And what that does is the city would opt in to this program, and we would be assigned a state compliance team that would review our experience in federal funding or federal funding and also reimbursement, review our city policies to ensure they're aligned with the recommendations from the compliance team and the documentation process as well.

We'll also go over our procurement process and make sure that's aligned with federal guidelines and our contract administration process. Now, what exactly are they looking for? So the state is very well versed on what they get RFIs or request for more information when a municipality or a county puts in for a reimbursement due to a disaster. So what they've done is they streamlined what those RFIs are being sent in from the federal government. And being and looking at our policies and our procedures, they give recommendations to the city on how to proceed if there needs to be any type of change or additional language.

There he goes. So as we discussed, why are we participating? So we're looking to get a DRA score, our disaster readiness assessment score. What's what's the score going to do? It's gonna it's gonna be based off of our any gaps are identified in our recovery policies and procedures, and it's going to strengthen the documentation required for our federal reimbursement.

It's gonna improve the coordination across all your city departments during a recovery event, and it's gonna enhance the city's ability to recover disaster related costs. Now the DRA score, the max score you can get is 80%. So what does that mean? Just simple numbers. If for whatever reason we need to recover a $100,000, the depending on our score, if we would get the best score there is, which is 80%, the state of Florida would actually upfront give us 80% of what's expected to be recovered, so $80,000.

And those funds would be based off of what the damages are and what the possible recovery threshold is. So it would give us the ability to use 80% of those funds after we go through this process. This is pretty much the Florida Department of Emergency Management or the Division of Emergency Management saying, We've gone through all your policies or procedures and we feel comfortable enough to give you 80%. Or obviously, if your score is 50%, you would get 50%. So it's just depending on that score.

So implementation and timeline. So this is an internal implementation process. The city staff would be working to put together a work group because this is a citywide initiative. The emergency management division would be the facilitator between the FROC compliance team and all the city departments to go over financial policies, procurement procedures, documentation practices, and disaster recovery processes that are already in place. So pretty much we would opt in, and they would we would give them our policies, procedures, and processes that we have in place.

They would analyze those and give us feedback, and then we continue we have an opportunity to enhance or change any type of policies during the abatement period, and then they would give us a score at the end of that. So our internal timeline, we've chief Martin's briefed the executive leadership on this to coordinate with the city departments. I know we have here May 2026, but we're we'd like to operate a little ahead of time. So we're here in April to inform the city commission on this program, and the opt in period begins 06/01/2026. So how that period looks like I just wanna it's so we would opt in June 1, and we have about a sixty day window to opt in.

Then the DRA process would start in October. Then from October, we have until March where they have a review process, and then we can make any changes to policies if needed. And then 05/31/2027, we would be locked into our DRA score, and we would be in the actual program effective 06/01/2027. So the participation in this FROC disaster rating assessment will help the city strengthen the disaster recovery and preparedness and and improve our ability to recover these costs. So I'd open up for any questions.

Thank you very much. Are there any questions? Commissioner Casal. Thank

you. I was looking at this online, and there are a lot of cities that are doing this, but it talks about the training aspect of it and getting yourself into it is very time consuming and very costly. That's not A question is, right now, if we have a disaster, are we recovering from the state or are we just getting it from FEMA? What does it currently look like in before this program would be implemented?

So for any declared event, the city's municipal emergency management program, if if it's a county declared event, we will fall under Palm Beach County Emergency Operations Center. They then become the applicant for any recovery cost within the declared or impacted disaster zone. So the county becomes the applicant to the state. The state then pushes those applications to FEMA. So by aligning with the FROC program, which our county is already aligned with, makes that process a lot more streamlined.

And essentially, this program, the best way I can I can send it or or say it to you guys is, yes, there's an internal staff cost as far time working through policies, revamping policies, or any deficiencies? But the standardization of documentation that the state has developed to help us and the county apply to FEMA is essentially like putting FDM on retainer to work for us. If we are using their forms, ensuring that our policies are compliant with the code of federal regulations when it comes to procurement and cost, human human resource and and staffing. As long as we are compliant and we're meeting all of those those those benchmarks for the federal level, which is extremely complex, we we will have some guaranteed funding reimbursement

that the

state's saying, okay, we know that you this this amount of funding you are going to get back, and we're going to guarantee that these funds, and if you have any problems, we're going to go directly to FEMA and fight for you.

Interesting so it's almost like FEMA doesn't want to cover the umbrella of all states and they're allocating to where they're going to be putting money and that's scary and not related to us but the FROC, it says it only applies to category A debris removal and category B emergency protective measures. Could you describe what the category A is and then also what the category

So B category A is related to our debris removal and debris management. Protective services are those things that we need to do to immediately provide for life safety of our residents, our visitors, and in our community. So that could be anything from up staffing fire trucks in the police department to bringing in additional code enforcement of public work personnel to immediately provide for rescue and life safety of our community. Now, those are two categories in this very comprehensive document. I don't know if any of you have had a chance to ever look at it. It's It's called not the PAPG. The Papa G is what we call it. That has Groce: several

different categories in there.

FROC and FDM are working diligently to get this system and get this process to apply to all of the categories.

Okay, that's important.

And that is a long term plan. This is not an easy lift for any municipality.

Right.

But I can tell you that when we do need to be concerned for a significant event, and when we are impacted with a significant event, hopefully we are all on to bigger and better things and retired and sipping pina coladas somewhere. But the people that manage that event will be very thankful for the work that we do collaboratively now to put this system in place. Because I can tell you, we're navigating the reimbursement and recovery with a type one event will will take up numerous staff time and a lot of additional staff will be needed.

Right. And that's the concern. A lot of additional staff will be needed. And I don't know

that we If we're not if we're not in this system.

Okay. You're saying only if we're not in the system. But the way that describes what we need to do for our procurement department it's good that we're bringing somebody on board but it's going to take the city it seems like quite a bit of work to get to where we need to be. And then I had one additional question. Oh my goodness it escaped me hang on one second because I know it circles back. If we opt in is there a

fee No there is to no fee in this program this is offered to our municipalities and counties through FDM. What it does, being an active participant in the program, it does give us a starting DRA score of what is it, 20%? So we get a starting DRA score of 20% for being a participant enrolled in the program. Which translates to about 20% of our cost just by being a participant enrolled in the program.

Thank you. I appreciate your time.

Great. Any other people? Would anyone want to be recognized?

I don't have any questions. I just want to say thank you for the presentation and thank you for that thorough explanation. It's very clear. Thank you.

Mister Marker?

Yeah. Look, I really want to say thank you. I was the one that was loud up here, you know, not that long ago about all the changes that have gone on in Washington with FEMA, and there have been lots of them. And it it it should create some trepidation for all of us that live in in the state of Florida with the amount of potential disasters that we have. And I I think this program is a really good one, and I think we are wise to be early early signees to get in on this because it's still unclear, you know, what FEMA will bring going forward.

I think those, you know, those questions will get answered in the future at some point. But in the meantime, the safest place for Delray Beach to be is actively involved in this program because it will it will provide us with some relief. So, I'm I'm very thankful that we are where we are.

Anybody else who should be recognized? Commissioner?

Go out

of rock.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Thank you all very much. And chief, I wanna congratulate you. You said you'd come in. You'd save us some money. You saved us $3,000,000. That's fair. I I I appreciate that very hard work in trying to do that for the taxpayers of Delray Beach.

That is all thanks to my amazing, talented team that I work with, sir.

Thank you. Okay. We are now on sorry? Five eight two. Well, have yeah. Commons and inquires on agenda and non agenda items. City managers, we're at five eight two.

Mister mayor, just briefly introduce. So made a commitment not terribly long ago to offer a high level overview relative to claim process. Interest was expressed at the dais level to do so, and likewise, I've asked director of human resources, Duane DeAndre, to offer a brief update or overview in terms of how the process works operationally and administratively. Mr. DeAndre if you would please.

Alright, very good.

Can you all hear me? So,

this is a high level overview of the claims process overview. I have a short slide show here I'm gonna present. So I'm gonna go through the process summary, what the claim intake process is, what the assessment and investigation involves, the liability review and the final legal review. So what happens? A claim is reported to the city, and risk management is notified of the claim.

Risk management contacts the claimant, and the claimant must complete a few things here. We're talking about a notice of claim form and any supporting documents included for the claim. Such as photographs, repair estimates, repair invoices if already fixed, proof of ownership, proof of insurance, and a police report, if applicable. So once that's done, the claimant returns all the requested documents to risk management, and risk management reviews for completeness and initiates the investigation process. So risk management contacts the applicable department or departments for any supporting documents concerning this claim.

And the department completes a third party incident report which includes work orders, photographs, contracts, any insurance that may be applicable to the claim. For the liability review, the risk management reviews all documentation from the claimant and the department and works with the department and the director to determine the outcome. There's two possible outcomes. Right? So we either have no liability, which is claim is then denied by the staff, or we have some possible liability, where the claim is escalated to a third party administrator, TPA, and the TPA evaluates the supporting document documentation to determine the liability.

The TPA provides a settlement recommendation and request approval to accept the claim if valid or lets us know that we should deny the claim. Then we go to the final legal approval. Correct? So we go risk management, sends the TPA's recommendation and claim file to the city attorney requesting approval to reimburse the claimant if that's the way we need to go. And the city attorney reviews and may approve the payment pursuant to the TPA recommendations or amend or deny the payment request. And the TPA is notified of the final decision and how to proceed with the claim. Basically,

that's

a very high overview level of how the claims process is handled here at the city of Delray Beach.

Okay. Thank you very much. Are there any commissioners wishing to be recognized to discuss? Any phone?

What I'm I'm just questioning. Why do we need a presentation on this?

There was a request by a commissioner make that request and Citi did it. So that's

Thank you for your presentation.

Well, I

I requested it in fairness because that process is not always being followed and certain people are getting their claims processed and paid without going through that process and I wanted to know why that was. That's why I requested that. Mister Moore could have answered that for me but I mean now we're looking at and people can be giggling out there but it's a $2,067,000 dollar claim against the city.

I I

I don't find that humorous. Hang on, if I may. It's my Yeah.

But I'm not but I'm an advice accountant.

We don't talk

about not trying say

I'm I'm speaking on a public record, and this is from our advisor. The city, this is the claims consultant from PGCS, did not cause the problem. I'm using I'm not using the word specifically of what the problem was. The payment was in my opinion a good faith gesture. I don't think Delray Beach taxpayers should be paying out on a good faith gesture. Another page Delray was not the contributing cause. Yep, Delray paid out and there's more emails exactly the same. The city attorney was not notified. The claim was settled. There was nothing signed to protect the taxpayers from future claims.

That's not acceptable and that's why I asked for the presentation. This is not the way things should be happening and Dwayne, what I will say to you very honestly, that I appreciate, is when I came to your office you just said it was a mistake. But my concern is more to the point that these claims go to the city manager first and depending on who they go to first it seems like they're being handled differently and I would bring the Weinberg claim into question too.

No. No. We're not any No.

But you can't be just paying out

Well, we can't undervise the council. We don't talk about

individual in Delray.

We don't talk about individual

And that's certainly what it looks like. Attorney. I'm done. We're not following our process. We're not following

our procedure. Fine.

I I think the other Which we would like my

other Yes. Thank you, mayor. The other claims were closed. Mister Weinberg's claim is is technically pending, so we shouldn't I understand what you said, but it was denied. But it it's it's technically pending right now.

It shouldn't even be

But I do think that a a review of the procedures that we we should re look in again to our procedures to ensure that That Everything to protect the city is being done. Everything to protect, you

know The taxpayers?

Not a small amount of money. This isn't a check.

The the the procedures that were outlined today are since you the commission approved the resolution amending the settlement authority, and I think that will alleviate a lot of the concerns that were voiced from the dais. And we just have to see how it it pans out. I mean, you just I think you just approved it in February. So we have to just see So how that works far, open lines of communication have been received. Mister DeAndre and his team, they're meeting with all the departments on a biweekly basis. I'm getting request to review claims. So I do think that the process, it's gonna work itself out, but the new process, I think, is much better.

Thank you very much. Any other question?

You are going to discuss that other claim that I've brought up a couple times for $2,300,000.

I'm asking to no individual claims be discussed.

Well, I know, but tax payers should know what's going on here. Right. Over a year and a half ago, someone caused the taxpayers $2,900,000 of damage, and nobody looked into it. Nobody filed a claim against the culpable party for over a year. And Duane, when we sat together the other day, you said to me, and it's I have it. You said, well, that's because we never had a final bill. But when I went back and did a public records request, over a year ago, we had a final bill. It's it's right to you. You sent it to mister Moore and said, what should we do with this? $2,300,000 of taxpayer money, and no one was looking to get it. And mister Moore didn't respond. You don't have to fall in the sword.

You don't have to respond. Really not not talking

about of money, and it it's only because we were bringing we're booking around,

excuse me, to talk excuse me. It is inappropriate to talk about individual claims and and and 2,300,000 taxpayer dollars. Suggesting people fault and suggesting things like that from a dais when these issues are being handled by

Now it wasn't until it got poked around that they filed a claim on the eighth after it was inquired about

five times.

Fairness, mayor coming before you, I think, the next agenda. That's fine.

Then it's an agenda item? That's that's absolutely fine. That's absolutely

fine. Budget amendment is coming before us.

Correct. It won't.

The item is coming before the commission.

Thank you, sir.

So mister mayor, ladies and gentlemen, I have one other informal item in addition to what's listed on the agenda because there's been questions and observations regarding the legislative funding and appropriations request process. So myself along with assistant city manager Jeff Forrest to briefly update the commission in terms of how this actually works. The level of involvement relative to the city commission includes a connection with our state and federal lobbyists. They appear before you all every year. Matt Forrest of Ballot Partners appears before the city commission to outline a series of considerations based on energy initiated by the office of the city manager working closely with the department directors to advise the commission in terms of what opportunities may very well become available.

That dynamic also occurs at the federal level. You've had an opportunity to interact with mister Michael Willis of the Color Nine Group, who's represented the city of Delray Beach during the past couple years, actually since about four years now, and that is an opportunity to engage the city commission with respect to what opportunities are available at the federal level. Bottom line, this is not a issue of elected officials or individual elected officials lobbying for specific outcomes and that is actually generated by way of professional engagement involving state and federal lobbyist representation. Mr. Doris, if you would fill in the blanks for us in terms of specifics.

Have filled in the commission before that, particularly with the state allocations. We get requests from the departments and I work with mister Forrest on which ones might be most viable. And we go ahead and we submit those. And generally, he will update you on what has gone forward when he comes and does his update usually in the January time frame. And I give you as an example one of the the federal allocations.

We, I am not exaggerating, had six days to submit requests this year for federal allocations. Congress, the the ruling party in in congress decided to open it up and had to have the applications in within, I think, it's two weeks. Our congressperson needed those, needed time to review them as well. So we literally had, I think, from Thursday to the following Wednesday to put together programs and submit those for allocation. Thank you.

I this this actually I asked mister Moore for this because there was a I got some calls on somebody sent an email talking about that I had all these secret meetings about this thing. I actually learned about all these things because I made some calls to find out what were our legislative initiatives and what we're looking for money. And I wrote about a couple of them in newsletter. But I do think that so that nobody on the commission is blindsided, I think it is a fair request that prior to the initiative being undertaken by the lobbies and I understand that these are initiatives they're generated by staff. You know, the drone program was generated by the fire department.

The engineering department generated the Swinton Avenue. I understand the genesis of these things. But I think it would be better that prior to our lobbyists, whoever that may be, and whether it's a federal or state lobbying effort, that the commission at least be informed, here's what we're going to be looking money for. Bang, bang, bang, bang, just so we know what it is, so that when people call us, everybody is informed. And you can follow-up or not follow-up to the extent you want to do that individually. But I do think that it makes better sense. I know it has not been in the past. I know it has been to customer in the past. But I think going forward, I know I would like to know what initiatives we're looking for. Because for heaven's sakes, constituents ask us, what are you trying to get out of Tallahassee?

It'd be nice to have an answer instead of having to read it in in in in, you know, in a report filed at the end

of legislative session. And ladies and gentlemen, that is actually a fair consideration. We do try our best to accomplish that. Typically, in December or possibly January, Matt Forrest does a nice job in terms of providing an overview of relative to specific possibilities in that regard. Nevertheless, we'll be clear. And the process varies from year to year. Mister Orszio just gave a cogent commentary relative to the six day window we ended up experiencing for the most current legislative session. So it's a little bit goofy at times in that regard, but nevertheless, we'll endeavor to be upfront as we possibly can, which is always the spirit of what we intend to accomplish so that the commission and the public is aware of what specific pursuits are being made available. So that will be our charge, I think that's a fair obligation.

So allow us allow us to look smart in front of our constituents by telling what we're doing for them in Tallahassee. Are Agreed. If I may also, one of the things that we often have too, particularly with the state, we will request money and they will cut the amount that they're willing

to give. Now we'll

request That's always the case. We have, as we did several years ago with a blocking vehicle for the fire department, we refused the money because they didn't give us enough to make it worthwhile to do the program. No. I I I I I the way it was explained to me is that the staff or whoever the department will make a request hoping to get enough funding to do the project. If we don't get it, then we don't go forward with And the sometimes they're matching funds, we just can't do it. So it's just but I just all I'm trying to say is I think it's important for us to know what initiatives are being pursued either in Washington or in Tallahassee so that we have a basic understanding of what money we're looking for? That's all.

Do not note it. That will be the process. It typically is, however it is, but will tighten up based on the dynamics of any given year. So mister mayor, ladies and gentlemen, have one other item briefly I'd like for the public to be made aware of, and this stems from an information letter report I offered back in October, the title of the piece being, actuarial analysis to evaluate cost of living adjustments for retired general employees. I've had an opportunity to speak to a couple of you all about this recently and this is a function of an ordinance that was approved by city commission in January 2024 that essentially mandated a biannual review of retirement disability benefits provided via the city of Derry Beach general employees retirement plan.

So the intent is notice to help determine if existing benefits have been eroded by cost of living increases, whatever the case might be. Bottom line, given every biannual exercise, we are obligated to produce a naturorial analysis report by the following April, which is where we are at this particular point in time. So a report is to be provided to the City Commission within the next several days. We anticipate having it administrative ly by this weekend therefore being provided to the city commission next week, early next week or so to also include the metric in terms of what the liability would be to the city should there be an interest to make an adjustment. So again, given what was directed back in late twenty twenty three resulting in an ordinance adoption back in January 2024, we are involved in this analysis is being finalized, and this will be made available to you all next week commensurate with the April timeframe to do so.

So with that, be on the lookout in that regard, and we'll have an opportunity to engage respective considerations you may deem appropriate as a result. Great.

Thank you very much.

Is that going on an agenda?

It will be an agenda item in the aftermath of my actually sharing the initial report, but within the next several weeks or so it will become a regular meeting agenda item. So our obligation is to not take action immediately in the month of April but to provide the report to you all by April but it will subsequently become an agenda item in the coming weeks.

Okay and one more question, are you looking for that on the next year's budget? Is that what we're determining this for our budget process or are you looking to implement that prior to budget?

It will be a function of that. Should there be any specific policy direction, it will become effective 10/01/2026. I'm now contemplating a May 19 city commission meeting agenda on the subject to be clear in that regard. However, the initial report would be provided to you all fresh next week, and it will become an agenda item May 19 as I've just committed.

Thank you.

As we're obligated to do. Thank you. Alright.

So, commissioners are finished. Now we are entering public comment. This meeting is now open to the public for comment from anybody wishing to speak on any topic or agenda item other than a quasi judicial item or a public hearing item. The public will have the opportunity to speak on quasi judicial and public hearing items later in the meeting as those agenda items are called. For public comment, please sign in, state your name and zip code for the record, and you will each have three minutes. Mister Richwag.

Albert Richwag, 33483. Still miserably suffering through my neighbor's parking lack of parking. Still wondering how a 25 seat grab and go coffee shop became a 50 seat restaurant with no additional parking requirements. I thought it would be appropriate to come talk about that tonight because you're gonna be talking about downtown parking later. Also, experienced the alleyway behind Yama, the 200 block of Southeast 2nd.

They've now made all of the public right of way parking behind the Yama And Brule Building. That's all now parking, paid parking. The entire parking lot is paid parking. How does a parking lot that is required for the vesting of restaurants become a pay lot? I thought that if you have if you go to McDonald's and there's 50 spaces, they can't just turn it into a pay lot. You need the spaces to go eat at McDonald's, and you can't afford the the amounts they're charging. My wife got a $135 ticket for parking in the alleyway behind Yama to go in for two minutes and pick up to go. She didn't realize that they had changed all of the underground parking behind Yama and Brule and the alleyway, the public right of way is what I'm speaking of. They changed that to pay parking. How does that happen?

How does the opal be allowed to charge and block parking on the entire roadway, public right of way again, behind the opal that is along their patio beach apartments. They ticket and tag anybody who parks in all of those public right of way spaces across from the fire station. They don't own that land. They can't dominate that land, and the the Yama Parking lot cannot charge for public right of way alleyway parking, and we can't be ticketed for parking there. It's it's taxpayers' land.

It's it's not their land to to rent out. Looking forward to the ninety days for the subculture reevaluation. Thank you so much for your time. Oh, and the police department is doing an amazing job ticketing the illegal parkers along my business in Federal Highway and on 2nd Street. Thank you.

Thank you very much. But you raised a couple of good points that I'm gonna ask the city manager to I I would like an answer to some of those questions too.

Mayor, could I ask for a point of order to The parking lot there, and I actually had this on my list, they put up a sign that says only residents can park there. I thought a portion of that parking when you go up had public parking.

Yeah. Thought they read there's a ramp here on the 2nd Floor there. I always had

public They closed the ramp, they have this sign up that says you can't park there. I don't know if

The there condition of approval was that lot via public lot. So because that was always this this place I would go because a lot of people didn't know about it. Right. But I happened to be there for the approval. So you would drive up that little ramp and and that parking was always that was that's supposed to

be Right.

Public parking.

It's blocked off now in public.

It says no public parking. Construction up on the the rooftop.

It's possible that that's it. I'm not sure.

It was there

for a while.

These are good questions. I'm gonna get an answer for you because I'd like to know myself.

Thank you. You, mayor.

Hi. Good afternoon, mayor and commissioners. Mike Tang, 33445. Speaking today with regard to Barwick Road spanning Atlantic Avenue to Lake Ida Road. The understanding is that Barwick Road is still under construction, but there are several concerns, namely road width, roadway water drainage issues, and sidewalk width along the southbound lane that's on the west side.

The lanes with very well, for many sections on the roadway are at the threshold of significant safety concern. While the roadway may meet standards, larger vehicles have very little room to navigate certain stretches of this roadway. Coupled with a tight turning radius in and out of many communities along the road way, this presents very many safety challenges especially when larger vehicles such as buses, box trucks, leather trucks are involved. Road drainage. As it is right now, roadways flood this roadway floods in downpours.

This presents a danger of hydroplaning and safety concerns. Understandably, this may be because work is still in progress and some drains are not yet fully functional. Where the newly installed drains meet the roadway, the row the drain edge is often inches above the roadway, which leads to poor drainage, their standing water, hours after rainfall. Hopefully, these newly paved areas will be repoured with a new layer of asphalt to bring the roadway level with the drains. Sidewalk widths.

The sidewalk width on the northbound on the southbound lane is significantly narrower than the east side. Section closest to Atlantic Avenue has mailboxes installed on the sidewalk itself as required by US postal, so it can't be helped. Staff mentioned yesterday at the planning and zoning board infrastructure hearing, the mailbox placement meets code and is ADA compliant and meets minimum measurements for wheelchair access. However, when coupled with trash cans or vehicles blocking access, it may force pedestrians or cyclists out into the roadway, which pretty much negates the shared use premise this improved section of sidewalk is supposed to function as. Multiple residents have reached out to the city to address these issues, including WPTV.

We hope these safety concerns are addressed to the fullest. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Can I ask a question about that?

Excuse me, mister mister Patten. Yes, your commissioner.

Well, I just wanted to ask a question about that because I brought that up a couple of weeks back. I thought it was my understanding that there has been some additional engineer work that they're gonna be doing some more evaluation out there. That's that's

not true.

Oh, there is. They're doing they're doing a widening on one portion. I know that.

I thought there was some additional evaluation taking place.

I think I think what we're talking about phase one versus phase two and I think there's an observation regarding that so miss Barletto I think I just touched it but I would still like for you to come forward to clarify that please if you don't mind and per the request of the vice mayor thank

you yes there's phase one that's under construction right now it's about halfway complete only the first lift of asphalt has been laid on the roadway. There is still the second lift and final final asphalt that needs to go down on the roadway. The storm drains still have filter fabric in them to keep them from being contaminated by soil and that sort of thing during the construction activities. And because the construction is not completed, they are somewhat above the ground level where their finished finished ground will wind up being. So we expect that all of those those drainage complaints that he was talking about will be dealt with in at the final fine at the end of the project.

Additionally, there is shared use sidewalk on the East Side of Bar Barwick Road, but not on the West Side of Barwick Road. Part of that was due to the very limited amount of public right of way we had on the West Side of Barwick Road, especially in front of the mobile home community that is right there. We originally designed the mailboxes to go at the back of the of the sidewalks. The postal service came in and made us move them to the center. Well, not to the center, but to to an area of the sidewalk where they can the mail can be delivered from a vehicle because they do not get out and walk mailbox to mailbox in that area.

There is still ADA accessibility either side. On on the beyond the mailboxes, there's a five foot sidewalk width, which is what is required by ADA standards. There was something else he brought up that I wanted to to mention. The road is actually the same width as it was before, but there is now curb and gutter on the side. It is. So Please.

Continue, please, miss Perdotta.

I have to keep

that So yes. So take that. Yep. When the the asphalt is is finished coming up where it's even with the valley gutter on either side, it will be an improvement for the people. As far as the phase two, after there was significant public comment at the first public outreach meeting that we well, it wasn't the first one, but the most recent public outreach meeting that we had on the second phase of Barwick Road, there were a number of concerns that were brought up.

So we have initiated three additional studies that are gonna go into the into the planning process. One of those concerns the viability of guardrails and whether or not they are actually warranted in that area. Another is that we've met with Banyan Creek Elementary School, and we are assisting the school with a queuing study so that they may be able to utilize more of the school property for that activity and help them to do a better job of managing the traffic that's in the Sable Lakes neighborhood. And there's a there's a third one. And off the top of my head, I've lost it.

Don't know. I'm sorry.

That's very thorough overview because typically we do not engage back and forth. Public comment is for public comment. We always respond back at an appropriate time. However, vice mayor, in response to your specific question, we made an accommodation here.

And thank you. You did answer my question. I guess the three additional studies is in phase two.

Correct.

And according to what you just said, once phase one is completed Yes. Then you anticipate that a lot of the concerns will be addressed?

I do. Thank you. Change is hard.

I could

just do a quick little follow-up. I I am recalling some of the I I read a lot the materials that there was one or two interchanges that were done where you found they were actually that they were gonna have to be widened because they they actually were as constructed were two

There was one at Francis Drive. The initial construction, the contractor had not put the curbing in the appropriate place. They had to dig that up and move it back out again.

Has been done?

That has been

accomplished. Yes. Thank

you very much. Thank you, miss Barleto. Mister Patten.

Thank you very much. Price Patten, $3.03 $4.08 3. I'm here to follow-up on behalf of the Preservation Trust, a letter I sent you all on Friday, asking you to declare an emergency because if you go to an RFP, it's, you know, it's not gonna happen by June 1. You know, we did find what what what's what's been told told to me is, like, one of the best tree movers around. I mean, this guy's moved stuff for Tiger Woods and stuff.

So he knows what he's doing. He went out there and personally inspected it. He said it's movable. He gave he quoted an oral quote of a $150,000, which I said in the in the letter. You know, I know you're leery about taxpayer money. There's $77,000 right now in the tree fund. It used to be, more, but that that is money that's paid by builders. So that's not taxpayer money. You're gonna have to pay a certain amount to to even if you have to destroy it, it's gonna be 20 or $30,000. You're gonna be out of pocket.

So why not apply that to the to moving the tree? And, the board of the preservation trust, we're we're not a very wealthy organization, but our board did authorize, donating $5,000 to the to the city to help in this regard. You know, think of it in another way. I mean, the tree's grown there for eighty years for free. You know? When we first discovered it, it was exciting. It was a champion tree. Everyone said it's great. Then we ran into the brick wall with Management District, it's like, well, maybe it's not such a great tree after all. But it still is the type of tree that that every every tree expert I've talked to in the last couple days has said it's worthy it's worthy of saving.

And they even found a a spot for it outside of the clubhouse so people could look at it while they're having their while they're having dinner. So thank you very much. I hope you consider that that option and save the tree. Thank

you. Thank you, sir.

Hi. I'm Siobhan Berowian, 33435. I'm here on behalf of Periwinkle Morley and Coco and Co. We have three boutiques on Atlantic Avenue, and we've been in business for over sixteen years in Downtown Delray. I'm aware that the employee parking program is going to be reviewed soon.

And I just wanna say from the merchant's perspective, this program is definitely working, and I appreciate the commission for that program. I did just wanna note we are at the tail end of season, and I I think it's worth noting that we continue to hear a lot of negative feedback about the metering of the Roy Simon lot, formerly the railroad lot. The app the application is confusing for customers. I know I've brought it up before, and I think the mayor had some pushback, which was fair, about a lot of our top clients who come annually, seasonally some, some are regular customers, have expressed that they don't come downtown anymore because of parking. And I think the mayor pointed out that seems contradictory because if they're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars at a store, why can't they pay for parking, which is a fair point.

That said, the reality is they're unhappy. It's bother bothersome to them. They're still not coming downtown. And it's not a concern just for my business. It's for all of the businesses. I think it's hurtful for all of us to see like parts of the blueprint of Delray leave, cut like cut leaving is hurtful. We're all sad about that. So we pay a lot in rent, a lot in taxes. So I just hope you guys will take that feedback to heart and consider that as you review parking.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good evening. Thank you, mister mayor and board, for allowing me to speak tonight. My name is Joe Del Vecchio. I live at 5145 Northwest 3rd Street in High Point Seven, and I'm also representing High Point Seven because I am the president of the board. And my subject tonight is Barwick Avenue from Atlantic to Lake Ida.

I have received numerous complaints from our residents at High Point seven. We cannot exit High Point seven without when we make the right hand turn, without going into the southbound lane of Barwick Avenue. And if you watch the video from the newscast, you could see tire marks on the sidewalk that they put in. Not only that, the lane is nine feet wide. I googled and asked Google what is the width of a normal lane in Florida, and it said 12 feet.

Okay. Google is not right all the time. But nine feet is much smaller than that lane was before construction. I sent a, a drone video to some of the members of the board and showed you before and after, and you could actually see it. We have fire engines, emergency vehicles up and down, Barwick.

And when they're going up and down, if you have a school bus up and down, one's going north and one's going south, that fire truck, okay, and that school bus, there's no way to go. It's very tight. There's also construction. We have sanitation trucks that come into both of the high points, seven and six, that are actually on that double yellow line. There are some abutments on the sidewalks they put in.

It was mentioned that they were making some adjustments. I haven't seen them yet. They made a lot of adjustments up near the mobile home. The grade was totally wrong. So that makes it suspect to me that maybe that lane is too narrow, and whoever did the previous work did not do the right thing.

Also, I think it's actually an accident waiting to happen. A week and a half ago, there was an accident, just before Lake Ida. They had the ambulance there, and someone was was on a stretcher. I don't know what it was all about, but there was an accident. I ask you to please look into this and make that northbound lane and that southbound lane wider.

There is room. Either you shorten up the east side of the sidewalk and use also the west side of the roadway because there's room there to make those lanes wider. And at night, I don't wanna drive down the street. And that's the complaints I'm getting from the people who live in our community. Thank you for listening.

Thank you very much, sir.

Good evening, mayor, president of commission as well. I'm here tonight just to personally thank two of our commissioners on Sunday.

Your name and the post. Name and too.

Even though we know

we know you already typed it up. So hold my man. It's I know she typed my name. Cynthia McFarrell Ridley live at 210 Northwest 2nd Avenue. So I know she know my name. Really ain't worried about it. But I'm personally here to thank commissioner Burns and commissioner Mollock who showed up for me and Anne, station right on Sunday as we was honored at Saint Paul Baptist Church in Delray on Southwest, 10th Avenue. Again, I wanna say I appreciate you guys for showing up. And, also, a lot of us, about 40 of us from the set came to honor as as as well. So, again, thank you to the set and especially to my special commissioners. Thank you for showing up. And come and also former commissioner David Randolph. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much. Think Jimmy with us from these are two. Some former

Hello. My name is Rachel McGann. I live at 236 Northeast 13th Street, and I have been talking to the city for many years. I've gone through three different engineers about the flooding problem on Northeast 13th Street, specifically my property and Albert Ridge Wagon's property. Right now, we have an emergency emergency because because there there are are four new homes being built on the North Side of Northeast 13th Street, and this is where the water is coming from. I know we have plans in the future. They're working on stormwater. My neighborhood wasn't designed with stormwater management. It was it's an old Florida. You know?

It's Delaida Park. I'm at the north end of it. So it was designed with larger lots, small homes. And over the years, of course, people put in impervious without permits. That's not the real problem. The real problem is since they're building new construction, construction, there are two being built behind my house. And when they build these new homes, they raise the grade. I know that supposedly the code is such that they have to keep the water that comes off their roof onto their lot. That's not good enough. They raise the grade, which means the water that used to run onto their property runs onto mine.

It runs out onto Northeast 13th Street and to the two oldest properties, which are properties. I will be flooded out soon. It's not when. It's it's it's not if, it's when. So I the city is talking about making plans and studying, but we can't study. We need to hurry up. Put some drainage in. As a matter

of fact, I don't

know why these builders are allowed to build unless they pay for the drainage. Because, I mean, up north, I've seen builder developers put in sewer lines, an entire sewer lines in streets before they were allowed to build and develop. We need to change the zoning, make the houses smaller, make them one story. Our neighborhood shouldn't even be. I'm lucky that the builder on my street is a great builder, and he's gonna build beautiful homes. But we have an emergency situation. I have a lovely home. Please come and visit me. I've spent a lot of time and money fixing it up. It was built in 1958. It's a duplex. I know. And I need immediate help.

You're between second and the railroad tracks. Right? Yeah. I know where we are.

I'm I'm the greenhouse on the right It's the I'm desperate. So thank you for listening, and thank you for your comments earlier.

Thank you.

Hello, you beautiful people. It is Marjorie Waldo from Arts Garage. I hope you're all doing great. Americans for the Arts, I'm gonna share with you something they posted on, LinkedIn a couple weeks ago. The research about the arts as common ground. 76% of Americans believe the arts are personally important to them. One of the rare points of bipartisan agreement in our current climate. Congress recently acted on it. Federal arts funding for the NEA and the NEH was protected at 207,000,000 each with support crossing party lines. Proposals to eliminate these agencies were rejected.

In an era of declining institutional trust, the arts remain one of the few spaces where Americans from different backgrounds still gather, engage, and find connection. 72% of Americans say the arts create connections across different backgrounds, and 78% see the arts as a positive force during challenging times. The arts are not just entertainment, entertainment, but but they they are are the connective tissue that binds communities together. In a fractured moment, that means more than ever. That's the end of Americans for the Arts.

The rest is all me. I wanna remind you and on public record that we've created a 25% off coupon for our city heroes. I sent it to the as many department heads as I could figure out your email addresses. I was hopeless with, the finance director's last name. I couldn't pull it off. But I tried to get information to you. I hope you will use the 25% off code and come see a show that's for all city staff. You are our heroes. I'm also super excited to see many of you at our fifteenth anniversary ribbon cutting next week at 05:30 on the twenty eighth after an Adam Frankel style CRA meeting. I wanted to name drop.

Mayor Carney, vice mayor Casal, and commissioner Molica are all attending as well as city manager Moore. I know that, commissioner Markert, you're out of town. I am. And commissioner Burns, don't know. Vice mayor Burns. Oh, that's probably why you're not coming. No. You keep Vice mayor Burns. If I'd done that right. Okay.

I have I I will be coming.

Oh, good. I'm glad. Former mayor former mayor Jay Alperin is gonna be there. The cultural council, for Palm Beach's Dave Lawrence plans to attend as does Palm Beach County commissioner Bobby Powell junior from District 7. Palm Beach County's vice mayor Marcy Woodward from District 4 will read a proclamation celebrating Arts Garage's anniversary. We are all board staff. I'm leaving.

You gotta bring cute cards for us. You you know?

We gotta work for the applause.

But I'm happy here because former mayor Alperin, you know, was also with me.

I was

know, for the original work. Were we were then called the Creative City Collaborative.

Well, that's still our business name.

Oh, is it? Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Arts Grocers, our DBA.

I'll catch you. Okay.

Okay. Good. I'm looking forward to seeing you. Thank you

so much. You

were just waiting for an individual invitation, obviously. I mean,

I I've been promoting this thing up up around the community for the last two weeks. I don't know why she left me out, but it's all good. Oh my god. I'll be there anyway. Oh, I'm so

excited write it if mom

has done that.

Alright. Reggie Cox, 715 MLK Drive.

ZIP code. ZIP code. 33444.

And I'm representing the Set Neighborhood Alliance tonight, which is a group mayor, as far as time is concerned. Thank you. So I am here tonight in support of, obviously, agenda item seven g, the set transformation plan, adoption to the amendments to the set transformation plan. And I just want to, I do have something to read from a president of the Carver Park Neighborhood Association, Janice Hill. She she couldn't make it.

She's taking care of her elderly mom. And so I'm gonna read, what she sent because she wanted to attend. You know, this document that I'm holding up here is the 2014, 2017 work strategic plan. It was written in 2013. And it is it it you can put a you can put a point right there in time because what it did was confirm the twenty prior years of what this community the community's visions in the in the West Atlantic community, and I know it as the set.

It reconfirmed all the past plans in 2012. Now here's sixteen years later, we're still on that track for that vision, okay, of having a neighborhood and community comparable with all of the neighborhoods in Delray Beach. For example, the cultural plan, the Delray Beach cultural plan. I'm sure some of you are familiar with the Delray Beach cultural plan. Well, that plan is what was put in place to obtain what we see in Pineapple Grove today. Okay? So we know that plans work in Delray. We know that's the process. Okay? It's a means to the end.

It's the process that we have. It worked for Pineapple Grove. Pinewood Grove was completely built out. Some people would argue overbuilt, but they had a plan to do that. And so we're very encouraged to do that. Now I'm hoping that that plan pass passes and gets approved tonight. But, you know, in the game of golf, I tell my colleagues, you gotta play 18 holes. You know? If you're up after nine holes, that doesn't mean a thing. You understand what I'm saying?

You gotta play 18 holes. And then, you know, in the game of golf, you know, we often say those holes ain't loyal. Okay? So we're hoping that we're hoping for success, but we're not counting, and we're not gonna count our blessings until until it happens. Now once that plan is hopefully approved, it has to be promoted. You know, that's part of the Main Street program. You all familiar with Main Street. Promotions is very important. As we know, Pineapple Grove was built on Main Street. So we want that plan to be promoted, and I wanna just pass out some brochures that is paid for by taxpayer money that's gonna help you all promote the plan that I'm hoping you all pass it.

18 holes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Love it.

So that's just a little encouragement, but it's gonna take everybody to not only if the pan passes, but it has to be implemented. Okay? And financed and and supported through all the collaborative partnerships. So at this time, I'm gonna read the statement prepared by Janice Hill. She is, like I said, the block block captain of the Carver Park Association the president. I'm sorry. Alright. Let's see if I can find it here.

Alright. I

thought it was very thoughtful of her. Her mother was a teacher to a lot of us in the community. She was a teacher to my mother, actually. And so we just have a lot of ties in Delray Beach. Alright. Here we go. Janice written by Janice Hill. I'm not able to join this afternoon. However, this was this is my speech. Good evening, mayor and commissioner.

I'm here today as both a resident and a witness to the town's history. This community once deliberately divided black and white residents separated by Swinton Avenue as we know the history. Yet despite that division, Atlantic Avenue served as a shared lifeline of commerce, culture, and identity for both sides of town. Today, we are at the crossroads. While the East Business District has been preserved and supported, the historic West District Of Swinton area, rich in culture, resilience, and economic potential, has not been given the same opportunity to grow.

The excuses not to extend the business district into this area continues a pattern that feels all too familiar. At the same time, new residents are arriving and raising concerns about the very culture that has stain sustained this community for generations. Its music, its gatherings, in fact, it's vibrancy. These are not disturbances. They are the story of a resilient community.

We are Delray Beach, West as well as East. Growth should not come at the cost of erasure or displacement. I'm asking this council, I'll change it to commission, to take a meaningful step toward equity by extending the business district into the historic African American community. This is not just about economics. It's about your knowledge and history, investing fairly, ensuring that long standing residents are not pushed aside as the city continues to evolve. We

have

an opportunity to correct the past imbalances and build a future that reflects all of us. Thank you, Janice. I'm glad I'm able to share that for her historically. And, like I said, we're looking to finish 18 holes tonight. Let's see if we can do it. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Cox.

Mister mayor and commissioners, I'm Olivier Verdier, and I live in 33444. Can you

hear me?

Mhmm. Yes. Okay.

I came two months ago to talk to you about Atta Yoga, which is located 2219 Sea Crest Boulevard. I'm here regarding the recurring ecstatic music events hosted by this nearby yoga retreat on the first Saturday of each month from 6PM to 11PM. This is not a one time issue. It's a repeated disturbance that has already required multiple police visits per evening. Despite those visits, the music continues at a level that is clearly disruptive inside our homes.

We have tried everything. We spoke directly to the organizers. We contacted code enforcement. We called the police multiple times. I already came to this council two months ago. And after our last complaint during a city council on March 9, the event was canceled for April. But now it is planned to start again this Saturday, May 2. The problem is not just the noise. It's the cycle. It stops temporarily and then it comes back.

We're asking for a clear and impossible solution, not another temporary fix. Specifically, we would like clarification on three points. First, are these events properly permitted? And if so, what are the conditions regarding amplified outdoor music? Second, what are the enforcement mechanisms when multiple police visits in one evening do not result in compliance?

And third, what measures can the city take to prevent this from recurring every month in a residential neighborhood? We fully respect local businesses and community activities, but residents also have the right to quiet enjoyment of their homes, specifically in the evening hours. Right now, the burden is entirely on residents to repeatedly complain with no lasting resolution. We're asking the city to have the May 2 event canceled and to step step in with a consistent rule and consistent enforcement so this issue does not continue indefinitely. Thank you for your

time.

Can you give me the address where you say it's supposed to

219 Secret Avenue. Secret Avenue. 2219? 2219. Yes.

Business?

ATHA Yoga. H t h a no, you? Mhmm. ATHA. ATHA.

Okay. Got it. Thank you. Alright. Thank you very much, sir.

Good evening, folks. Mark Bertolotti, 33445. I'm coming here tonight to speak about the, Baldwicke Avenue repaving, sidewalk, drainage, that whole project. I I'm in High 0.7. I don't know if you I don't know if you're all in tune with what we what we're facing there. The project is it it looks great. It's coming along beautiful. I I I heard somebody talk before about the unevenness at the at the sides. I believe that's a binder coat that's down there now. So they'll come back, and they'll they'll recover the top of it.

However, that's not really the issue that we're having. We're we're we're two senior communities directly across from each other that come out onto Atlantic I mean, come out onto Barwick Road. They made the lanes so small there. We got 400 plus units in one side, and what is what is six? 200, 300 units on the other side.

That's a lot of traffic coming out of those two those two places. It's all day and night. You can't negotiate the turn out onto the lanes of traffic without either hitting your tires on the curb there or crossing over the double yellow line into the oncoming lane of traffic. It's setting up for a absolute disaster there. You have to see this to you you have to physically go here and see what I'm talking about. Drive into our community. Try driving out again. Now envision old eyes coming out of there after dark, and you know what's gonna happen. You got 35 miles an hour coming one way, 35 miles an hour coming the other way. You do the math what happens when two cars hit like that.

It's gonna happen. It's happened last year. It just happened last week. It this is this is a recipe for disaster. Somebody needs to look at this before it goes on any further. The reason I came here tonight is because not only am I interested in the people that I live with in my community, I'm watching out for myself too. And if we ever have this conversation again, we're not gonna have you. We're gonna be all talking with my attorney because this is a disaster waiting to happen. You need to physically come out and look at this and put your car in in the places that I'm talking about and then drive out of it. And you'll see what I'm talking about.

I I think you're gonna completely understand once you go there physically look at it. As far as the end with the mailboxes in the sidewalk, you gotta be kidding me. Like, you have to be kidding me. Is it is does it pass muster code wise? I suppose if you wanna call that, but who's signing off on that? And you want somebody's name on that? Does the mailboxes are literally in the center of the sidewalk. It looks absolutely absurdly ridiculous. Come by and take a look at it and see what you think. That's all.

What's the name of the road coming out in from High Point down to Barwick? What's the name of your

your road? It is Northwest 3rd Street.

Northwest 3rd.

Thank you, sir.

Okay. Thank you.

Jerome Weatherspoon, 33444. Longtime resident of Dairy Beach, registered voters, a longtime in Dairy Beach, a taxpayer in Dairy Beach for a very long time. I said before you to the honorable male, vice mayor, all of the commissioners, and everyone that sits on the dais this evening. I come with a request for at from myself and on behalf of my family. I come to speak about a great man, a man who was not well educated.

But during this era, they had a term called mother wit and hard work, trusting in God and treating their fellow man as their brother. My father, he, LC Weatherspoon, he made a great contribution over the years long when I was just I guess you could say I was a gleam in my mother's eye and a itch in my daddy's pants. He contributed a lot.

Too much information, mister Weatherspoon, but thank you.

He he he did a lot of things such that the people on the desk at that time saw it fit that he'd be recognized for all his contributions to this city. As a result, they said to him, and this was passed on to me by my mother and my father, that they said that because of the contra contributions that he made in this city, they want something that his children and his children children and others could see the great works and contribution that he made in the city. And so at that time, they decided to name a street after him, Witherspoon Lane. Now

as

I said, my father was not a learned man educationally, but he was a smart man, a businessman. And many times, my myself and my brothers from grade school school even through high school, we was always called witherspoon. And they say, well, how do you spell that? I say, just like the weather and spoon. Not rocket science stuff.

But, anyway, my request and my family's request is that we would, add on to Northwest 12th Avenue where my parents reside, where we rear they rear 12 head of kids there and, gave them the same moral values there, the treat people like people there. And be honest and fair there, we would we request that, since it probably would be next to impossible to correct the name Witherspoon at, because of all the factors involved in it.

Continue, sir. Continue.

Oh, then we would, ask that, LC Weatherspoon be added to 12th Avenue just like, Northwest 2nd Street is, underneath the sign that had Martin Luther King just like

Like Elks Way and the other ones. Yes.

All the other one. And so we it is our request because of the contribution that he made in this town there. Our siblings, second generations, they actually say, well, when we tell them the story about their grandfather, our father, of the contribution he made there, they say, well, why is his name is not corrected? I say, well, that happened. But we want to give them something that they can pass on to their kids and their kids as long as we are in this world that with so many Weatherspoon, they'll be here

There are a the good lord There are a

calls us home. And so it is our request, as I said, if you can find within your hearts there to pass this, that we would add into in addition to 12th Avenue because many of the families that reside on that street has been a a legend on that street. He left a legacy, and we want that that future generations, they could see the legacy of which he left. Thank you very much for your time, mister

Weatherspoon.

Andrea Bruton, 33445. How do you come behind that right there? So true. So true. The history is rich with the Weatherspoon family.

I wanna start off by thanking the city manager for your recent and prompt response and resolution to the invoice issued. Mister Moore, thank you so much. Two, I'm curious as to why ribbon cuttings for community parks in other locations or other areas are held during the week when most residents are working? Are these events for the residents or for the city staff and leadership? There's been two ribbon cutting ceremonies at a park across the street from my neighborhood, a new playground, and a new storybook trail.

And the residents nor the children of that community were able to attend because we were working and the children were in school. Growing up, these events were usually held mornings in an effort to allow the public to attend. Our neighbor our neighboring cities are accommodating their community by hosting events either on Saturday mornings or early evening. I'm asking that we kinda we kinda change that practice of doing weekly ribbon cuttings in the mornings so that the community can be involved as well. We opened a whole neighborhood on Southwest 8th Avenue, and half of the residents that lived there, that bought those homes, weren't able to attend attend that event because it was held during the week.

And lastly, but not least, I I also had a statement to read similar to Johnny's Johnny's, heels, but instead, I'll yield to her statement and drop the mic on what she said. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Montre Bennett 33444. A prophecy at how long? And somebody shot it by not long. So I wanna know how long. I'm a read a verse, and then I'm a go home about my business.

If it may be said of slavery era that the white man took the world and gave the Negro Jesus, then it may be said of the Reconstruction era that the southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow. Yes, sir. He gave him Jim Crow. Mhmm. And when his wrinkles stung cried out for the food that his empty pockets could not provide, yes, sir.

He ate Jim Crow, a psychological bird that told him that no at least he was a white man better than a black man. Right, sir? And he ate Jim Crow. Mhmm. And when his undernourished children cried out for the necessities that his low wages could not provide, he showed them the Jim Crow signs on the buses and in the stores and on the streets and in the public buildings.

Yes. And his children to learn to feed upon Jim Crow, speak their last outpost of psychological oblivion. Jim Crow is still alive today, and y'all have the power in y'all hands. Y'all have the power in y'all minds. Y'all have the power in y'all hearts to do the right thing. Alright? Don't nobody wanna be a slave? Don't nobody wanna be head on mental through their slavery, through these emotional challenges, through these emotional chaos outburst that the world makes us have. We don't want that. Okay?

We wanna be civilized, and we wanna be continue to be the loving people that we always been. We gave y'all the history. We gave y'all the maps, the blueprint. Y'all used it. You put it against us. Now it's time for y'all to correct y'all rights and fix y'all wrongs. Do what's right by the people. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Mayor, commissioners, vice mayor, Yvonne Odom, three three four four five. This is a proud moment for me because I like to really highlight the power of community. With this set transformation plan on the agenda, I was privileged enough to be on the comprehensive plan when that plan almost got buried. But the resilience of the community say no. No.

No. No. And thank god I was at that meeting and was able to and I'm not gonna take credit for it, but I witnessed what was almost happened to that plan. The other thing I looked at every time I go by Atlantic High School and look at that golf course and see how gorgeous that is. Who did that? The citizens. They said, no. We're not gonna have a hotel in front of a high school. And former mayor Jay Alperin was one of the lead people, George Williams. Those who are I'm not a golfer, not even interested.

But I am so proud. Again, citizens says, no, you're not gonna do that. You're gonna do what I say. Now Pompeii Park, another one. West Atlantic development, the set transformation plan.

The citizens said, you're gonna include us, and I appreciate you listening because we have to be reminded that you guys work for us, the ones who voted for you and the ones who did not vote for you, the ones who gave you money and the ones who didn't. And sometimes we forget that. Now I'm still upset about two things that happened in this city that we did not listen to the citizens. I don't need the name now I'm gonna name them. The independent CRA board.

I was at the right sitting over there when the motion was made. No input from the citizens. And Old School Square. I was in here when that motion was made. No citizen input. But I wanna applaud the citizens of Delray to understand. You have to take charge of what you want. These five people, now remember, don't take but three of them. Three can determine what they want without listening to you. But in this case, listen to the citizens.

That's why we are here, and I encourage you, voice your opinion. And, no, we're not gonna always agree. But don't take your ball and go home. Understand that when you are elected, it's a purpose behind that seat, and that is to listen to the voters, the ones who voted for you and the ones who didn't. Thank you very much.

You very much,

the set transformation, please.

Sorry. Your time has expired. I know you have my number. I know you have my number.

Good evening, mayor and commission. Angela, 33444. They say persistence beats resistance eventually. So I'm simply being persistent this evening. I'm gonna read to you all for a third time what I have written and emailed to you previously.

I am here as long time resident of the city who cares deeply about the fairness and honesty in how our city grows. Long before any of us purchase homes and open businesses here, lines were drawn in Delray Beach. Swinton Avenue was a boundary. Policies like resolution one forty six, ordinance two zero nine determined where black residents could live, gather, and socialize. The West Side became the place where the culture and nightlife were allowed because people had no other choice.

Today, those laws no longer be enforced while one is still on the books, but their footprint remains. The in excuse me. The entertainment district begins right where that old dividing line once stood, just East of Swinton. Now new residents have moved west into an area that has always carried music, gathering, culture activities, yet the response response has has been been complaints after complaints about noise as though the activities arrived after them when the truth is they arrived after the activity. Downtown from I 95 to a one a is called 1 District, but it is not treated the same.

On the East Side, entertainment is expected. On the West Side, it is restricted even though history placed it there first. Extending the entertainment district West Of Swinton also creates opportunities for years. Four empty blocks along West Atlantic have remained empty, many believe waiting us out. But finally, there is hope of development that will actually serve the neighborhood.

A long awaited grocery store, retail, restaurant, gathering spaces, and locally supported businesses and housing instead of the vacant land and empty spots. So we pray. A community should not have to silence themselves because the population around them changed. When people choose where they live, they should accept the character of the place in which they chose. The West Side has always been a culture corridor.

It should not be limited because it has come to it has become desirable to some. Extending the entertainment district West Of Swinton is about consistency. It recognizes history. It supports the present residents and allows long needed development to take root. I respectfully ask you to extend the district and be respectful of those that have been here and grown that soil.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome. My name is Chuck Ridley. I am 33444. I am here to speak in support of the set transformation plan. The set transformation plan is more than a plan.

It's a promise. A promise that this neighborhood could develop without displacing legacy residents. It's a well thought through plan. A plan that had multiple stakeholders involved, community residents, elected officials, city staff. Here's what's different about that plan.

It goes back to 1995 and roll up into 2017 every plan that expressed how we wanna see this neighborhood develop. You have no plan that is more thorough than the one that you have before you tonight. And what will this plan do for the entire city of Delray? It will ensure that you will have a city that working class families not only remain but thrive. It will ensure that you have an Atlantic Avenue that truly is representative of who this this community is.

It is the future that you have expressed, all written out and laid before you. You have the easiest part of the work because the citizens themselves have done this in a transparent way for decades. So where are we now? It's in your hands. We will get a chance to see you. But regardless of your decision, we know there is a on time god. Yes. It is.

Thank you.

Awesome. Good evening, everyone. Laura Simon with the Downtown Development Authority, and I'm here with

Jewel Goliardi Zelman from Zelman Style Interiors and from the DDA Board.

Okay. So thank you for tonight and thank you to all the residents that are here. On behalf of the DDA Board we're here to support many of the items that are on the agenda. One I'll lead with which is why every all the great speakers that were here before us, the residents. But seven g is transformational in our in our district, in our downtown and we we've been as an organization.

I personally been as part of this plan and help supporting the sets development and the branding, and the DDA has been a huge part of that all along the way. And it is a very, very integral part of our entire district and we wanna make sure that our board has reviewed it. They weighed in. They're very supportive of it and we wanna make this happen. So we encourage you all to move forward in approving that tonight.

And we're gonna be here. I'm gonna be here because we have several other items on the agenda. The beautification task force, I sent out to you earlier, I think later last week. Our board reviewed that last week at our board meeting, sent recommendations to you all based on the beautification task force and, the feedback from the board directly of how that to move forward with that. So I'm here tonight.

Don't wanna talk about I don't need to go through all those now, but I'll be here if there's conversation that needs to be happening during that time. And also parking. So downtown parking in October, the employee parking was put in place as well as many changes to the downtown. I've also provided you all with feedback. We did surveys of over 600 people, residents, and, and also visitors to our community and employees and business owners gave took time to fill out that survey and provide their feedback.

And you should have summaries of that along with recommendations, the recommendations that were given by our board back in August before the plan went into play. But also just based on the feedback that was received, we've also given recommendations that we hope that you take into consideration. It was our understanding that it was all going to be reviewed today. But it looks like you're reviewing the employee parking program, which you are hearing that that is beneficial. It's just, needs to be better communicated what we're hearing from the merchants, the communication to the operation because a lot of people are still getting tickets on that, the functionality of it.

And also, I did in our email was reflective of the Pineapple Grove district and the private lots also that are impeding and taking over and we really need to find some solutions around that sooner than later. So, Jules, you wanna take the time because I'm out. So if you wanna take for your seconds. Add anything that I might have missed.

Anyway, I'm happy that it's that it's on the agenda to discuss. And like Laura said, we're here if there's any contribution that we can make in helping the decisions become a collaborative one. That's all. Thank you very much for your time. Great.

Thank you.

Public comment is actually closed because we've had one hour now. You do have something you would like to say, sir? Then I'm I will give you, and you are the last.

I'll make it quick.

Good. I like that. Quick. Yes. Thank you very much, mister Burns.

Please. Alexias Burns. 2 no. 33445. Mister mayor, commissioners, city manager, attorney Jellen, good evening. I am the son of Robert Burns, king of Zamunda. And no. I'm just kidding. Three things. Four things I got. Real quick. Four things. The Entertainment District. 1 Delray. This 2026, y'all. Right? 2026. We know we have some evil spirited folks that were in Delray. Right? But we're in 2026 now. I'm not gonna tell you who I think is still kinda evil, but it's okay. Right? We're in 2026. Let's get that done. Right?

Entertainment District, 1 Delray, 1 downtown. 95 all the way to the beach. Two, set transformation plan for, I wanna say, since 2016. I know I've been involved since 2009. We've been having meetings, community meetings after meetings after meet so many meetings that I say meetings. I'm also on the board of the steering committee for divisions plan. Great meeting. It was, what, 90 plus people there? Nothing compared to the set meetings. We had 200 plus.

It's written. It's documented. So if that was a great meeting, then we have fabulous meetings. Right? Because the city is involved, the citizens are involved, and I'm still kinda teetering on if you all think that we're citizens and not here in the set because, yeah, you definitely take the tax dollars, but I don't know if you consider us citizens being that once you get off 95, there's a clear distinct difference in the two.

Right? Thirdly, I have been asking, I don't know for how many times, of a dollar amount. And since we are definitely concerned about taxpayers' dollars, right, I don't understand then why I can't get what the taxpayer dollars were that came out of this community since 1995 because it has been used to uplift and bring up other parts of the city, not this part of the city. And we can see that with our eyes. So I would please like to get a definite amount how much of the taxpayers dollars have been spent and or wasted because we seem to do at least, what, 2,300,000 of research that we can say that that has been missing.

How come we can't figure that out for this side? Right? And then lastly, I've been trying to get meetings after meetings with some of you all. I'm gonna continue. I could say that we're not gonna go anywhere. We're here, but I'm gonna say we ain't going nowhere. We are here. Right? This is third generations now and even more. We are here to stay. We're gonna be working. It's smart to work together. Let's just get it done. This is your time now to shine. Right? This is your legacy. How is it gonna look? How are you gonna end it? Thank you.

Thank you very much. Public comment is closed because we expect we extended it beyond one hour, which is what it is, which is why it closed, by the way. But, unfortunately, time for everyone. We are now I need a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Motion to approve. Second. All in favor?

Aye. The opposed? Consent agenda is approved. Going on to regular agenda item seven a, which is the resolution 77 dash 26.

A resolution of the city commission of the city of Delray Beach, Florida amending its budget for the fiscal year beginning 10/01/2025 by providing for supplemental appropriations in the amounts identified in exhibit a, repealing all resolutions inconsistent herewith, providing an effective date and further purposes.

Thank you very much. Mister Duckowitz.

Good evening again. We have a number of budget transfers to discuss here. I'd rather go through them sequentially. There is one item in exhibit a, budget amendment number eight, summary resolution number 7,726, where where we're looking to move $2,262,764.94 in the general fund and moving it to the water and sewer fund $4.41. Revenue increase and expense increase related to emergency work performed utilities.

Mr. Hassan Ajimi is here

to elaborate.

Good evening. This is to address emergency situation that we experienced January as a result of the activities of the roadway contractor. The name is Roadway Contractor LLC. That they stockpiled their material there. And as a result, the underground infrastructure was impacted, which forced us to immediately bring our emergency contractor there because of the amount of the raw sewage that was going to be released into the water body.

It's right next to the lake. And that special lift station handed in over 1,300 homes raw sewage. So it was extremely dangerous. So we had to act. And there we are.

And as a result, can elaborate later. But right now, risk management is working actively to hopefully recoup that cost from the contractor or their insurance for the money that is being transferred from general fund to utilities. But the reason it's not from utilities fund because it was in no way because of the lack of, let's say, attention or whatever that utilities did. Our underground infrastructure just simply there. And it was directly impacted by their activities.

So do you want we should be recognized?

Thank you, mister Hajamari. I did a records request, I went through 3,388 emails on the subject. And I just want to thank you because it's evident in your correspondence that you are very much looking out for the taxpayers. And every time you're here, I thank you, and I just wanna make sure the public knows that you are doing that. And I know this was an accident, No fault of the cities at all. I'm not happy with the fact that it took a year and something for the city to act on this in light of the correspondence. But I am always proud that you run the utilities department because you do an amazing job for our residents.

Anyone else wish to be recognized? No. No questions. Thank you, mister. Thank

you, sir. Thank you.

We appreciate, really, the hard work that went into. They don't undersell it. Second do their

item is from Neighborhood Services Department division requesting authorization to transfer funds between the designated State Housing Initiatives Partnership, SHIP, general ledger accounts. This transfer is required to address a material observation identified during the recent monitoring review involving funds expended on a household later determined to be income ineligible. Reallocation is necessary to ensure full compliance with the corrective action requirements issued as a part of the monitoring process. The details of the proposed general ledger account transfers. So there is an increase in revenue in the other miscellaneous revenue promissory note repayment ship home pay account.