Village Council - Special Meeting

All right, you guys, get started.

You good? Oh, you're so funny. The special council meeting for Wednesday, July 21, 2026 is called to order at 6.32 PM. We're going to have a moment of meditation followed by a pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much, ma'am. Could we use that roll call, please?

roll call mayor nickerson here vice mayor martin is not here council person urban president council person lifewood ward council person winters will not be in tonight also present for the record david roseman village manager jenny shakobi village clerk and uh joseph geller is running a little late thank you very much appreciate that can i move most to approve the agenda

I'll second. Moved by Councilperson Lightfoot-Ward, seconded by Councilperson Urban. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Hearing none. Moving right along. Right now, this is good and welfare. You can come and talk about anything at all. First and last name for the record. You have three minutes. Good and welfare. First and last name and your address.

Go ahead, sir. Go ahead, sir. Go ahead.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen Mayor Nickerson and the council persons. My name is Ian McKenzie 8950 Northeast 4th Avenue. I was looking at some of the agenda items for tonight and I had one question about the police budget or the police negotiations, do we provide full healthcare coverage for them, for the police officers? So that's one of my questions that I have. Or is it just they get an annual exam every couple of years, as indicated on the contract which I read? So then the other item that I want to bring up is item number two, which involves a resolution number 2026. I guess that's the number. It's for speed bumps with all driveway solutions. I was very shocked, in fact, when I saw it, this proposal coming through, because we've not heard anything about any kind of location that needs speed bumps and everything. And I was here talking about a year ago, give or take a couple of months, when we were addressing the traffic circle. And I said, what about using speed bumps? And a lot of people seemed to think that, oh, they don't work. Okay, that was my takeaway from it. And I was very concerned. So then when I'm seeing this thing about speed bumps, I'm scratching my head, like, okay, this is crazy. Either I'm crazy or somebody's crazy or whatever we're doing. But it doesn't make sense. There's been no presentation to my knowledge of... the need or where they are. Are there police reports supporting that? We're entering into sort of a contract or getting committed to all driveway solutions and they're going to be installing throughout El Pertel. What roads need them? What don't need them? Has there been a traffic census done or anything from FDOT or any other agency for this? So I find we're entering into this thing very quickly and I just want to suggest that we vote no right now and look at it and see what we're actually talking about because you know our funding also which I haven't seen a copy of the budget yet for this year of how we're spending our money but we don't know anything about whether we can even afford this or how it's going to be funded or anything like that so I think we need to back step back track a little bit and get some more information before we vote on this thank you thank you

Tim Bossidy, 149 Northeast 89th Street. I would also like to request that we vote no to the speed bumps resolution. And my reasoning for it is I think through a lot of the conversation around the potential school and as we get closer to the potential flow development on 87th and Biscayne, there's been a lot of people asking for a comprehensive traffic study from an independent source. I know I'm one of them. We've also had, I think, conversations and asks around just the overall street plan, around code review. Are we protecting our swales, what we're allowing with heights, setbacks, lot coverage? What are we doing to fit the village style? What are we doing to enforce it? And so I'd like to see kind of our big picture items that we care about addressed first and have a comprehensive plan. I think there's an inclination generally to not save the general fund for the big picture stuff that we care about, like traffic. And so speed bumps, tot lots, things like that are all great, but it's time and limited dollars and resources that do nothing for what we view as existential to keep El Portal El Portal. So I'd like to see what the plan is to have a comprehensive look at all of this and might also request that an agenda item Every time for these meetings would be reporting out on Call it the big items. What are we doing with our code review? We saw that be used against us We got a lot of feedback as to what people want for in our code same with the traffic study where we are in terms of what's going on with conversations for the flow development for the school that the council and the mayor are aware of. I think it just be good to have versus us have to ask or scan the agenda to see if it's going to be mentioned or how it might come up just to have those big items addressed every time as well as the timing piece for the code review. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Noel Pace, 206 Northwest 91st Street. I'd like to make a mention of the Westside Traffic Circle. As you know, there was a lot of discussion about the Westside Traffic Circle. It got approved, it got put in, some adjustments were made there. I appreciated not having to knock down our wall that had had a variance for 20 plus years there on our property. However, I do want to ask the village to explore with the county some potential policy exceptions. Right now, according to their website, our village traffic circle doesn't match up with the county's own policy for this. They encourage splitter islands that have foliage, like green splitter islands, you know, the little islands in between the streets. where people stop if there's a car coming, they can stand between the two lanes of traffic. We don't have any landscaping or foliage in the circle itself, and they encourage that. I started to look at different traffic circles around the county, And for the most beautiful village in the county, we probably have the least beautiful traffic circle. So I just think there's some incongruity there. And I know you guys can do something about it most likely. The second piece is that along with that came some great lighting for safety and for visibility and so on. but it's probably one degree too bright, okay? It's like daylight outside when you're over there. And we are concerned about the, we live on Screech Owl Street, it's 91st Street, and the owls at night can't hunt because it's like daytime. And we have a lot of owls in that area. The last thing is is that when the light contractor put the lights in, They did a lot of excavation of the soil and the rocks, you know, and the coral ridge. And instead of taking that debris out with them, they went and threw it in all our landscaping. And so now I have these giant rocks, these white rocks in the middle of our green foliage with dirt piles. And so hopefully we can get that taken care of. Lastly, and I would always be remiss to say that the old Razor Church property, I hope that this council has digested this now, has seen the big picture that it should really be a park in accordance with our community plan and our future site use. It's a pretty small area. It's in the center of town. It would match up with our Miami Shores neighbor along with Biscayne Park. It would provide some of that open space. And then in talking about plans for the future, I think anything, you know, in terms of these, you know, big changes, you know, we need to sort of see the developer's master plan, not just for that property but for all of them before, you know, hey, so you guys can make informed decisions on behalf of the people that elected you. um i think that's good for now uh happy fourth of july happy 250. thanks for your support thanks and thank you next

Daniel Rojas, 16 Northeast 86th Street. So I just wanted to, for the good of welfare, I wanted to remind that we had discussed, especially considering that we're going over the the cba police agreement we had discussed in the budget last year that we're gonna have some workshops we're gonna have some more transparency about that and i just want to know where we stand with that uh... it's a village manager or mayor or council uh... where are we standing with anything regarding uh... transparency visibility of the current budget for this year and and even for last year's That's my first item. Number two is it looks like today we're going to discuss joining a challenge to the property tax constitutional amendment. But I remember last meetings we had actually discussed joining the SB 180 and maybe even now that Miami voted last week to explore a legal challenge to the Live Local Act. maybe we can explore joining either or both of those possible legal challenges. And then to join our neighbors over here, I just want to reiterate that I think that the Raider Park, Raider Church, A lot would make a fantastic park. It would be an amazing addition to our village, probably increase our values. And just if we can explore that possibility, being that it seems like those plans are at least on hold, just to bring that up to the council. Thank you.

Thank you.

Greg Steer, 120 Northwest 86th Street. Just a couple of things. Again, I wanted to reiterate what other people have already brought up. The fact that we are nine months into the budget and yet we haven't had a single review. We have no idea. WHETHER WE'RE OVERSPENDING OR UNDERSPENDING. I ASKED SPECIFICALLY IF THERE WAS ANY MONEY IN THE UNASSIGNED FUND, WHICH IS OUR RAINY DAY FUND. NEVER GOT A RESPONSE TO THAT. AND AS FAR AS I KNOW, FLORIDA MANDATES THAT EVERY MUNICIPALITY HAS AN INDEPENDENT AUDIT, WHICH IS DUE BY JUNE 30TH, WHICH WAS YESTERDAY. SO I'D LIKE TO KNOW IF THAT HAS BEEN DONE. As far as the CBA, another question, we're here to ratify a contract that started in October of last year and ends in three months. I'm not sure why that is. These contracts should be negotiated before they start, not almost before they end. THE OTHER THING ABOUT THE CBA IS I DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING IN THERE ABOUT SALARIES. I SAW COMPENSATION, BUT THERE'S NO ACTUAL SALARIES IN THERE. WE DON'T KNOW WHAT THE POLICE CHIEF MAKES OR THE LIEUTENANT OR ANY OF THE OFFICERS OR EVEN HOW MANY OFFICERS WE HAVE, ALTHOUGH I SEE MANY OF THEM HERE TONIGHT. SO MAYBE WE'LL FIND OUT. I WILL COMMEND THE POLICE CHIEF FOR FINALLY SUBMITTING THE POLICE REPORTS, ALTHOUGH THERE'S A FEW MISSING FROM LAST YEAR. uh January to June of this year they're all on the website and you can see for yourself from what I could tell in those six months first six months of 2026 there was a grand total of two arrests in the village but we issued 2479 tickets that's almost 100 tickets a week which is great I'd like to know where that money goes Anyway that was it, thank you. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Alexandra Baza, 120 Northwest 86th Street. A few people have already asked about it, but I ask again, as I do every single time, and for some reason that question never gets answered, and it's about the follow-up for the budget review that was due in October 2025, and it's still not... We're still waiting for it. And again, more details about the budget of this year. And as the previous person was saying, there are so many bigger items that I don't understand why are being discussed just now. So like the police contract now, if it was... discussed in October, why is it brought up right in the middle of the summer when there's absolutely nobody coming to these meetings? It is very similar to the, you know, what happened last year about the increased salary, again, with very few residents attending. So I would like to ask that those bigger items are reserved for it to be discussed in August or prior to June when there's more people willing to come to these meetings. The last thing that I wanted to ask about the speed bumps is When we just moved in, one of the first discussions that we continue having with you, Mayor, was the need to reduce the speed on streets like 86th Street and Northwest Second. So the solution for that was a speed bump in front of our house that honestly nobody paid too much attention to it. And the traffic circle on Northwest 2nd, nobody pays attention to it. So after three quarters of a million dollars, people are still speeding both on Northwest 2nd and on 90th Street all the time. We were told at that point that the police was being trained to use the speed guns. The only place where we see those speed guns that they're doing that is on Northeast 2nd. I don't know why, because the last place where you see people, there's sidewalks on that street. The rest of the town doesn't have sidewalks. You don't find people walking their dogs anywhere else on Northeast 2nd, but it's the only place where they're tracking the speed. So that is one thing that I would like to bring your attention to.

Thank you. Thank you. Who else? Good and welfare.

Good evening everyone, mayor, council, and neighbors. My name is Thomas Pulliam and I live at 205 Northeast 86th Street. I'm here tonight in a spirit of respect, good faith, love of civics, this village, and love for the rule of law. Because the law is what informs, guides, and protects all of us. It protects residents, it protects public servants, it protects the integrity of this council's decisions. And it ensures that no homeowner is left guessing which rules apply on which day, depending on who you ask. As you all know, last Tuesday, this council voted unanimously to preserve my property as is until July 28th as actionable pathways to close or cure my open permit is investigated, which I have been asking the village administration to do since March of 2025. When the coral stone installation was done on my property. I'm deeply grateful for last Tuesday's council directive and the caringness shown because it created a peaceful path forward. It gave everyone room to pause, breathe, and proceed thoughtfully. But less than 24 hours later, after the council's 5-0 vote, the inspection report to my permit record in the government database was revised to be a failed foundation. I believe that entry is materially inaccurate and does not reflect what occurred on site per my recorded video that I have shared with everyone and entered into the public record. Here are the facts. The person who appeared at my property declined to identify himself, which on its face is illegal when you're operating as a contractor of a government entity. The recorded video from the visit shows the field technician stating that they were there to take a distance measurement from a wall using a digital meter. That's it. A distance measurement of a finished wall is not a foundation inspection and it is especially not a foundation inspection when my approved permit has never required structural or engineering blueprints and that fact has not changed in the 16 months this permit has been active. There is another related issue. The revised June 24th inspection sheet cites code provisions that apply to structural work, but my permit has not been reclassified as structural. And I have not received any list of building deficiencies, a safety analysis, or final agency action, despite begging for this information for over a year. And just four weeks ago, I formally requested another final agency action notice So there would be a clear, appealable decision. I still have not received one. That's why I came in front of the village just last week. So the issue before us is simple. The public record now reflects a failed structural inspection that based on the recorded video of the site visit itself and the current permit classification did not occur and was not required to occur. I do not raise this to create conflict. I raise it to protect clarity. This council created calm, the permit record created confusion, and for the good and welfare of this community, clarity should win. That brings me to a broader point. Today, July 1st, Florida House Bill 803 takes effect. My understanding is that this law strengthens property owner protections and requires greater clarity around private providers, inspection processes, and related fees. Residents deserve to know their rights, they deserve to know their options, and the village has a responsibility and legal responsibility to communicate those rights clearly and follow the law consistently. So as a matter of good and welfare, I ask the village to publicly clarify its updated process for residents who elect to use certified private providers, including where residents can find the updated fee schedule and inspection fee methodology that reflect the new state requirements that are effective today. And with respect to my property, my request tonight remains simple. On Monday morning, I submitted a formal request to the village manager for a written administrative stay consistent with this council's June 23rd vote. As is typical, I have not heard back from the village and I respectfully leave this open request in your care and ask for a written confirmation this week. My hope is simple. Honor the spirit of last week's vote, preserve the peace this council created and keep the process fair, stable, transparent and lawful. Because when one resident or developer can trust the process, every resident and developer in El Portal is better protected. Thank you for your time, your service and your care for this community.

Thank you very much.

Good evening. My name is George Alvarez. I live at 165 Northwest 88th Street. I want to commend and thank the council and Manager Rosemond, although I do find it curious that the CBA is being done now as opposed to towards the end of the last fiscal year. Perhaps you guys can explain that when given the opportunity. I know it's a lot of work, so I want to commend all parties involved, especially you, Manager Roseman. My friend Thomas Pulliam just made mention of trusting the process. And I'm going to extrapolate on that for a moment. Although I cannot claim to know every detail about what Mr. Pulliam has gone through, I don't fully understand it. And frankly, it's so crazy-making that it makes me crazy. But that's kind of a sign that the system is a little bit broken, or as I like to say, fakakta. And it's a real thing. It seems to me that... With what I see going on in the council, especially in the city of Miami right now, as regards development rights and the near willy-nilly lopping down of some very culturally significant sites, older houses, and trees, that we should be focusing far more on making the lives of people like Mr. Pulliam a little bit easier, at least a little bit more clear so that there's a path forward. Frankly, after the meeting last week, I wasn't sure what the council could do to him. I'm unsure as to whether the council had any power to somehow mitigate his situation. And I'd love to hear you guys address that so that we all may proceed on the same premise. The issue that's going on in Miami right now with the city council is endemic And it's going to harm all of us. And some of fellow residents have mentioned transparency as regards our budget process. I think it's very important that we make every effort to make things as transparent as possible so that the people can see where our budget is and decide where our priorities are. How, you know, it's like, it's the, what is it, Socrates' cave or whatever. We don't know where we are in the darkness of a cave. So I'm encouraging you guys. Miami Shores already has their first budget workshop advertised. on its website for next month, second or third week of next month, the first of two, and I think that that's a great start. Their old budget for comparison so that people can understand what's going on is posted on their website so that they can kind of pinpoint the things that make sense or don't make sense as Tim alluded to. So I'm encouraging you guys to do that. And once again, I'm going to encourage this council to join the lawsuits with the other municipalities to stand firm for local rule, home rule in the state of Florida. is under attack and for those of you who wish to make it a partisan thing in other states better have other parties uh... in control home rules under attack there as well it's under the guise of affordability and it uses terms like workforce housing But when you start to look at the details, and the devil's always in the details, you start to realize that it's really a much different agenda. We can get into it. I'm well past my time, and I thank you for yours.

Thank you very much. Next good and welfare. Going once. Twice. Three times, all right. Coming back to the council. All right, so the. Yeah, no, do your thing, do your thing.

Okay, so I have no doubt that the mayor is going to address the questions regarding the contract and some of the budget issues as well. So before he goes into all that, I just want to say that in regards to the former Raider Church site being a park, I agree, however, the village had its opportunity almost 10 years ago to acquire that property. uh i mean i i i'm concerned a little bit with uh talking uh so comfortably about acquiring somebody else's property um i'm a little cautious in that even though obviously it's exactly what it should be as a park even a community center for the village but i do just want to say the village had its opportunity 10 years ago to acquire that property and and I would want to be at least cautious in a path towards discussing how to accomplish that when we talk about, I've said what I need to say, I think so.

Thank you very much, Council President Urban, I appreciate you. Let me just say also for the park, as far as the old Raider Church, it's always something, and I explained this last time about my vision of, and why I named this Little Peacock Park, I already explained that, that something has to go into the negotiations. The thing about it is we don't own that property. So if you're soulful now and you're that developer, we have to find a way to give them something somewhere else, maybe over here, right? Because maybe density or something like that. Because if you're soulful, you're sitting there and you're saying, I brought this property for 13.5 million or whatever, okay, so now what's my incentive on now making it a park? So I understand and I agree with the sentiment, but I want to work in a realistic format. Because if I just start going out to the residents saying, hey, we're going to make that a park, we don't own the property, right? And then what's the incentive on them paying millions, over $10 million for it, and then doing that favor for us for no reason or no benefit to them, right? So I try to think about it from all angles and from a development angle also. So I'm with that, but there just has to be a realistic way of getting there, so that comes with the negotiations with the developer. Okay. Besides that, let me just say that to move to the speed humps, first thing I'll move to. When it comes to the speed bumps or the speed humps, you guys, and I know a certain council person dredges this up also. When it comes to the speed bumps or the speed humps, it's interesting because sometimes it's almost like that old saying, no good deed goes unpunished. The reason why it's on tonight is for transparency reasons. It doesn't have to be on tonight. If you look at the resolution for tonight, it says in the second whereas, whereas in 2025, the Village of El Pertal initiated by Mayor Omar C. Nickerson committed to a village-wide installation of speed humps and signs, and the Village of El Pertal shall remain committed to such installation for the continued and increased safety of our residents. That was in 2025 we passed a resolution for this village wide. I'm gonna go to the 2025 resolution in a second. This is tonight's resolution. The third whereas says, whereas the village of El Pertal via resolution reviewed past tense because it was done in March 2025. The resolution reviewed three proposals and found that the proposal quote for the installation of speed humps and signs obtained by all driveway solutions, the lowest responsive and responsible proposal, and that it was proper source of procurement under Florida law. That was in 2025, we passed that. The only thing I'm doing now is saying, hey, which I didn't have to do, is saying, hey, we already did the procurement, we already had the three proposals, we chose all driveway solutions. I'm coming back a year later and saying that now that we used them, we already went through the proposals, we already went through the procurement, we chose them, now I'm coming back looking at their work and saying, hey, we already agreed to the village-wide speed hump last year. I'm saying, hey, instead of going through the procurement process because they were the lowest, let's lock in their prices and let's continue with them. Now, whether we continue with them or we continue with one of the other two who are higher, much higher, The village-wide speed humps has already been done and decided back in 2025. I will also say that the reason why not only transparency matters, me coming back and saying, hey, you guys, which is never, usually when we go through the procurement process and we choose somebody, we choose that company, that consulting group or whatever, when do we ever come back and say, hey, let's look at their work and let's do another resolution to decide we want to keep them.

That's all I'm doing.

That's all I'm doing. So I'm doing this for transparency purposes, which I didn't have to do. Also, I would say that if you look at the one from 2025, It says, a resolution of the Village of El Portal, Florida, providing for installation of speed humps and signs village-wide, providing for incorporation of recitals, authorizations provided on an effective date. The Village of El Portal is desirous of installing speed humps and signs as a method of increasing traffic control and safety village-wide. It's 2025. Another reason why I'm bringing it now is because for the past year I have residents over here, especially in this part right here, that are like, Mayor, you promised us speed humps a year ago, where are they? So that's why I brought it back. And as I said, in 2025, we already passed this. I didn't have to bring it back. strictly for transparency purposes. The next thing is for the tot lot, I'm gonna get to the code review, Mr. Bosley, for the tot lot. You guys know the funding for the new tot lot was no taxpayer dollars. Okay. As far as the code review, you guys know about SB 180 that the governor passed a while ago in the legislation that says that we can't update our code. We did do, remember that code thing we had here, we did the code workshops? That got implemented right after that. Okay, that being the case though, there is a certain way that you can get around that, being that that was passed while I was president of an organization which is recognized statewide, we can get around that. That being said, the Architectural Landscape and Environmental Board, which some people say would have no teeth, a couple of months ago we passed Here, because of the carve out that I have around 180, because of my position as president of the League of Cities, we passed that in the Village of Elbertile, the government can no longer use the same individuals to cut down a tree as the same company for the arborists. We passed that a couple of months ago. That's large. Because up until a couple of months ago, When we would have to cut down a tree, usually the person can use or we could use the same company would be like, hey, we got the arborist also. And we use the same arborist. And I was like, well, that seems like a conflict of interest because some of these trees, especially the large ones, there are tens of thousands of dollars to cut down and chip up, right? Because they cut them down, then they send them through the little wood chipper. It's tens of thousands of dollars. So it's a conflict of interest financially for the same company we're going to use to remove a tree to be the same company that provides the arborist report. Got rid of that through the Architectural Landscape and Environmental Board that I started. So that's where it's going with the co-review. There's ways around it because of that and that position that I have and we can continue to talk about that. As far as Mr. Pace, the West Side Circle, I don't know if you saw this. I agree with you when it comes to the lights. I was over there a couple of nights last week. right here on June 24th, 2026, 1147 a.m. You might not have saw this, but you have two emails on this list on the response. So I wrote back, this was to Mr. Kamulata. Louis Camelot. I said, I hope that your day is going well. I said, good morning, Mr. Camelot. I hope that your day is going well. We have been in contact with the senior representative of LED Lighting Solutions, which is a government FPL company. We have also been speaking with the Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works. They stated that the lighting installed was required at Northwest 2nd Avenue, where the roundabout is located in the county right-of-way and not controlled by the village. After continuing to push them push them to understand the importance of them treating us correctly. They said that if we feel that it's too bright, then we should go to the county to ask for a reduction in lighting and explain why it's too bright. We have begun that process. I then go on to say, we have been told that the county will send their engineers and technicians to evaluate the brightness complaints. And if found valid, they can then recommend reducing the light intensity. Right now, they say, the lights have been installed as per county requirements. What may also help is if the complaints were also being expressed by those in the vicinity of the lights. Those households are also free to lodge brightness complaints with Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works. We will continue to, in quotes, stay on top of them and advocate for all of you. If you would like to file a complaint with them, feel free to let me know and I can provide the email address for that. Regarding the construction debris, which was also a problem over there after they put that in, from the light pole installation and sod that was destroyed and removed, FPL states that they have not informed the village that they have completed the work and cleanup yet. So they were trying to say it's still an open ticket item, they haven't closed it yet, so they're not done. We told them that if they are not yet finished, they should still leave the area clean and presentable between their working days. We have requested to the FPL representatives to clean up. I told them that if it's not cleaned up by Tuesday of next week, that Then I'll lodge a direct complaint, an official complaint against that. And I will clean up myself after that. But I'll put an official complaint in after that. By Tuesday of next week. I'm going to get to the budget stuff. Can I comment on the... Yeah, go ahead.

So just real quick on the lights. The village should be petitioning the county to have blue lights there. That's it.

Thank you very much, Councilor Irvine. As far as the, I'm going to come back, because some of this police stuff, the manager and the attorney have to answer, because I don't know the answers to those, you guys. Okay, last thing I'll say before I turn to that stuff. Oh, Ms. Baza. The reason why the police, after they got the laser guns, for lack of a better term, the speed solution devices, the reason why they concentrated on Northeast Second so much is because we had, within maybe a three-month period, two-month period, I think we had two or three accidents there. And that had never happened. And so we noticed that a lot of the speeding on Northeast 2nd, just because it's that one lane, well, it's two lanes, but it's one that opens up for us right here, and then it closes down again when it hits Miami Shores. Because of that, I think people were, they were one behind the other when they were south of us. And then when it opens up to the four lanes, they gun it. before it goes back down to the two lanes when you hit Miami Shores. So because of that, we were finding that there was a large amount of speeding happening here. And then like I said, we had three accidents. One was really bad within like a two month period, I think it was. And so that's why we concentrated on here to make sure we got that down. But we can put a speed watch order over there for that, especially when school starts again, right? When people are going up and down that way to take their kids to school. What also helps out for speed watch orders, you guys, is if we kind of have an idea of what day or time of day is the worst. If it's random, then fine, we could put a watch order over there, but what does help us out is if you, you know, people say sometimes, oh, traffic going to school or in between, you know, 3 p.m. and whatever weekdays or weekends may err on, that helps out. But if it's random, then we can go over there and see what we can find from that point on. What I will say is, Mr. Taubenfeld, just shake your head up and down in agreement or shake your head side to side in disagreement. When I reached out to you a few weeks ago, didn't I reach out to you and say that I'm going to, I might even let you finish this comment. Come up to the mic real quick. A FEW WEEKS AGO WHEN I REACHED OUT TO YOU, I SAID, HEY, GET ME THE CURRENT BUDGET BECAUSE I WANTED TO DO WHAT WITH IT?

WHAT DID I SAY I WAS GOING TO DO WITH IT? YOU WANTED TO SIT DOWN AND REVIEW IT.

I SAID I WANTED TO SIT DOWN AND REVIEW IT FOR WHAT PURPOSE? WHAT DID I SAY? I SAID I WANT TO HAVE THIS. I SAID I WANT TO FIND A WAY TO PUT IT IN LAYMAN'S TERMS SO I CAN DO WHAT WITH IT?

PUT IT OUT TO THE RESIDENTS.

What I said to every single household, correct?

That is correct.

So, all the budget information current, once I meet with him, Mr. , we're meeting Tuesday, correct? That's correct. That's correct. Once I meet with him, my flyer packets, I'm putting every single thing out, every single household. all the residents. And that's why I said I want it in the most layman's terms so it's easy to understand. I've already been working on that for about a month. When it comes to the budget workshops, those we usually do in the end of August, beginning of September. This one will be moved up a few weeks, as I said before, in August. So we're going to try to move it up in August. Like it was correctly stated, Miami Shores is having two budget workshops in August, and we're in the beginning of July. So we were looking to do it in August anyway. But before that, as you just heard, I'm going to be putting out all of the budget information in a flyer packet on everybody's door for all you guys to see, all right? Spelled out and kind of like labeled out everything, okay? So you guys see that. You want to say something before I go to the police?

Yeah, I just wanted to ask a follow-up on where are we at? with the current audit, and then additionally, we do need to address why there was not a budget review in October or early into this year.

You mean after October? We passed the budget. Yes. I have the audit on here, so I'm going to hit that also. But I was going to hit that right before the police thing. As far as the audit, the audit, I believe that it's completed or almost complete. I know that there were some things that had to be turned in, but we can get an update on that from the auditors, you guys. But it's pretty much done. The audit is done. I believe everything was turned in. So we should be getting that back when we get that back. I know that the assessed value, the assessment assessed value, as you said, as you heard that I'm gonna be meeting with the CFO on Tuesday and I've been working on getting all the information out to you so I can kind of decipher that. But the assessed value, the final assessed value, and this one right here, CFO Taubenfeld, you can shake your head up or down, yes or no. Didn't that come to us like yesterday or today, the final, final, was it today? Yell out for me. Thank you very much. So I'm on top of it. Okay? I'm on top of all that type of stuff. This is for most of the manager and the attorney. So I used to be involved in the police negotiations, the police contract, since I was mayor. For some reason, Manager Lou, it started with Manager Lou. I can't necessarily blame Manager Roseman about this. It started with Manager Lou. I, for some reason, in this last contract, I was kept out of it. Okay? The only time that I would know that a meeting would be happening is when I would walk into Village Hall and a staffer here would be like, Mayor, why aren't you on the meeting? I'd be like, what meeting? The police negotiations meeting. I'd be like, nobody told me. And I used to be a part of all of them. So I don't know what happened with that. So unfortunately, these questions I cannot answer because they kept me out of it completely. But, and like I said, this started with Manager Alou, so I can't blame Manager Roseman for this. But when it comes to either Attorney Geller, Manager Roseman, when it comes to the police officers, do they have, in the contract negotiated, do they have full healthcare or is the healthcare, is it part, is it full coverage, is my question, is it full coverage?

This may be more of a question for our CFO, because these were elements that were negotiated before I came on board. But there is partial negotiation. We have walking the... the representative of the fraternity order of police, or maybe even the chief, can address the exact coverage, but these were elements that were pretty much negotiated before my arrival.

Whoever knows the answer to that question, Mr. Tobin, whoever knows the answer to that question, can you just answer, do they have full healthcare coverage?

Go ahead. While he's coming up, just correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the end of a process that lasted three years or more.

I can give you a history. Yeah, there we go. Or some of it anyway.

I think it is helpful.

And enlighten everybody as best as I can. So typically the contract with the police department is a three-year contract. The village signs a three-year agreement. The agreement expired last year, I guess 2025. Prior to that, obviously, we were negotiating with the FOP for a three-year agreement. to continue what's been going on here for as long as I've been here. Unfortunately, things got in the way, I guess, with the manager leaving, onboarding a new manager, getting him up to speed, negotiating back and forth. Seeing that the year was almost done, both parties felt it was best to go with a one-year contract for this year and then sit down and start again and go back to what we normally do is a three-year contract. So the goal again is to do a one-year contract this year and then follow that up with a three-year contract. The only change that you have for this one year is the 5% increase. from the prior year contract. So everything rolled over with the exception of a 5% increase, which the commission approved at the prior year budget. So that's really the only one change.

And the health care?

As far as health care goes, the village does offer health care to the officers. A percentage off the top of my head, I don't recall what it is. Is it full coverage? It is not full coverage. And we do charge if they do want to add any dependents to the employee. That I know is certain, but I'm almost certain also it's not full coverage. What the percentage is off the top of my head, I don't know.

BEFORE YOU WALK AWAY, I KNOW THAT THE TICKET MONEY DOESN'T GO TO THE GENERAL BUDGET, STAYS IN THE POLICE BUDGET, CORRECT?

PARTIAL. EVERYTHING FLOWS INTO THE GENERAL FUND. THE POLICE BUDGET IS PART OF THE GENERAL FUND. THE REVENUE GOES INTO THE GENERAL FUND AS WELL AS THE

But the ticket money, I thought, could only be used for public safety.

That is correct.

Public safety items. So it can't be used for like the top lot. It can't be used for, it can only be used for public safety items. Police related. Police related items. So that's why I mean like it stays kind of in their budget. Correct. Basically. All right. Thank you very much. Go ahead, Attorney Geller, and then we're gonna move, because the first item is the police contract anyway.

I am, but just to finish a question that you answered. You are an unusually active mayor, and everybody knows it, and you deserve all the credit in the world for all the many things you do, and it is a fact. I mean, I've been here long enough to know. You've been, in the past, were very active in helping us achieve labor peace. But at some point in looking at it, it got very contentious for a little while there. And that's one of the reasons, I mean, when people say it should have been done sooner, it's not like negotiations weren't ongoing, but there were real issues. And the biggest of them was the budget issue and what the village could afford. Everybody's in favor of having strong law enforcement, but you also got to keep the streets paved and pick up the garbage and other things. And there were real budget issues that weren't settled. They're not completely settled, but at least they have a better idea. And that's why this was entered into after the previous agreement expired. It wasn't that there weren't negotiations before. There were a lot. They just didn't come to conclusion. But in the course of that process, it was determined that whatever the administration, basically the manager and the CFO, with the assistance of my office, my partner actually did most of this one, was going to be presented to the village council for a vote, such as we're doing tonight. And to avoid any complications, there were some issues with the police union. that having you as part of the village's negotiating team might impact how you would vote as a council member. So to protect you, to protect the village, to protect the union, to protect the residents, everybody wants labor peace and not attorney's fees being spent in Tallahassee. It was determined that it would be cleaner to not have you part of the negotiating team so you could be in the same position as your colleagues on the council when it's presented to you for a vote. It's not that you couldn't do it or hadn't done it or weren't good at it, but this way it's presented to you and you can look at it completely independently from having been a part of the village's negotiating team as you'd been in the past. So no reflection on you, just a matter of keeping everybody in their lane. And the one year, frankly, was the union's suggestion. We always try to do three. but there were some budget shocks this year, as I'm sure all of you know, and so the one year was a stop gap, but the standard is still to do three years. As soon as this is approved, frankly, We're going to go right back and start negotiating so that hopefully we could have a new three-year agreement in place by the time this one expires. But if it takes a little longer, it takes a little longer, and the important thing is to get it done. And that's what the manager and the CFO and my partner managed to get done this time. They got it done, and we don't have to waste time. money on litigating with our union, we have labor peace provided, of course, that you and your colleagues approve the CBA. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I'm going to go to Council President Irvine to close it out. But let me just say, Mr. Pulliam, I'll talk to the building supervisor with the manager, and we'll see what new procedures or whatever they have to implement based on that new law, that new state law. And we'll get that updated. So I appreciate that. And you close it out for us.

Just very quickly, based on the input from the attorney, it sounds to me like as we plan for a three-year, as questions start to come to me, like can we do a five-year, seven-year, is this right? Right. So I believe we've had these discussions before, but... out of the input you've just given us, I feel like we would be perhaps ready as a council to have an executive session regarding this matter so that the manager, the mayor, the council would be able to, you know, an executive meeting session would essentially become public record at some point. The full meeting will become public.

For the record, if I might, Mayor, through the mayor, once you approve tonight that the existing one that goes back for the beginning of this fiscal year. I'll put on the record which is a prerequisite that the attorney's office is requesting at the appropriate time with the manager's input an executive session to talk to the council about our negotiating posture for the next CBA which we hope is three years and let me just say Anytime you do that, you're looking in a crystal ball, thinking how much money you're gonna have, not this year, it's hard enough to know that, how much you're gonna have three years from now. If you try to do that for five or seven, there's just no way, even the three, the way they're acting in Tallahassee now, and I rail on that every time, hostile to home rule, hostile to the cities, So it's impossible to predict I only saw we got to try and so I'll put on the record, sir, at as you requested, we are calling formally for an executive session to discuss with the council are negotiating posture for the next agreement, hopefully a three year agreement at the appropriate time, it would probably be best after the manager reaches out and we get some idea of what the union is looking for, we can come back to you, talk to you about it, and see how you feel and what you think should be our posture going into negotiations.

I'll just leave it as my desire for a more lengthy agreement is to provide an environment of stability for our folks who face the highest level of hazard within the jobs that they perform for the village. So that stability is incredibly helpful to have the outcomes that we would hope for.

Thank you very much, Council President Baum. Moving right along to the resolutions, you guys. Attorney Geller, if you can read that first resolution to the record for us at CBA.

Yes, sir. Item F1, a resolution of the Village Council of El Portal, Florida, authorizing the execution of the collective bargaining agreement with Fraternal Order of Police, effective October 1st, 2025. through September 30th, 2026, providing for authorization and providing for an effective date. Mayor, I apologize, there is a request to read into the record before proceedings a very brief statement by an absent councilman. So I'll do that if that's the pleasure of the body.

We've never done that before. We've never done that before. But yeah, you can go ahead and do it, Fisher.

Let me say, it's not automatic.

Just a point of order. Would it be more appropriate to read it aloud during the council discussion on the item?

Well, he references two items. Fair enough. So that's why I thought before we vote on either. It's quite short. To be clear, if this was three pages, I would note it and maybe excerpt it but never read it. But it's just a couple paragraphs. And I read fast. So I'm going to do that here. It's from Councilman Winters. I hope you're doing well. Unfortunately, despite trying to rearrange my travel plans, I'm still at the airport and not land until 7 p.m. and can't attend a meeting. As I stand on the record of last week's council meeting, I understand and appreciate the need for a special meeting to address the time-sensitive police collective bargaining item that was inadvertently omitted from the previous agenda. So for the record... And then he said, if possible, I respectfully request the following statement be read into the record on my behalf. For the record, he does not have any adverse comment to this first item, and I just thought that should be read before we do the item. He does say the following. I respectfully object to considering the speed hump agenda item during this special council meeting. Unlike the police collective bargaining item, this matter does not appear to require the same time sensitive consideration. Whether this agenda item is for payment of the previously approved speed hump project or an additional appropriation, or another action related to that project, I believe it would be more appropriate for it to be considered at the next regularly scheduled council meeting when all council members have the opportunity to participate. If this item is simply payment for work that was approved approximately 15 months ago, I respectfully question why it has now become so time sensitive that it cannot wait until the next regular meeting. If there is a legitimate reason for that urgency, I would welcome the explanation during the public discussion. I also wish the record to reflect that I do not support expanding or making additional expenditures on traffic control infrastructure while existing traffic control devices remain Pardon me, still in a meeting, call you shortly. While exist on traffic control infrastructure, While existing traffic control devices remain inadequately maintained, we've previously discussed on the record that several speed feedback signs remain inoperable due to failed batteries and other traffic signs throughout the village have deteriorated to the point that they are faded or difficult to read before investing additional public funds on new traffic control devices. I believe the village should first demonstrate that it can properly maintain the infrastructure it already exists thank you for your consideration request your assistance and ensuring my comments are included in the public record while i'm unable to attend that is the entire statement and just i will note that the mayor has already addressed these items at some length and respond to response to public comments and offered some of the explanations that were requested that said we mayor you're eligible to move forward with consideration of item F1, the resolution to approve the collective bargaining agreement.

Absolutely, and just for the record, what Councilperson Winters doesn't understand is that he voted for this last year. The Villagewide Speed Humps, I remember that meeting. Thank you very much. So we're right, so he read this resolution for the contract for the police. Before I open it up to the audience, is there anything on the council you guys wanna say about the police contract?

Well, I mean, I'm prepared to move to approve this item.

Thank you very much. I'm gonna open it up for you guys for the police contract. You guys say your name and address for the record. This is about the police contract itself. And you have three minutes, you guys.

I mean given the explanations that we've had as far as the kind of the one year gap I don't have any specific issues I would say with that but I think kind of ties into the continued negotiations for a longer term deal and then as we talked about all the items on the budget. I mean I think last time I looked the I think the police department was about 40% of the budget for...

It's over 50, I believe.

It's over 50. Oh, it's 60%. I had my percentual at 60%. And so I think, you know, given that, I just, in terms of what we're doing for long-term pay adjustments, how we're planning to expand the force, what the ticket revenue is being used for, transparency around all that, and then just keeping it... kind of uh open for comment and feedback in terms of like our priorities of the city i think our existing force does a great job but there's always natural turnover um in the force and so i think it's it's a question of like do we need to start like replace or keep hiring people or expand your budgets and personnel um based on the limited amount of money that we have and what the needs of uh the village are um just because it's a We're lucky, and it's a credit to you guys that we have a safe community, but Miami keeps getting safer and safer. We obviously need great law enforcement, but we also have no money in this town. Thank you.

Thank you. Police contract? Someone else?

Ian McKenzie, 8950 Northeast 4th Avenue. I still don't understand if this contract includes health care for them. I do see it says every other year they can get an exam or physical. But, you know, I'm in health care. And I firmly believe that people should have health care coverage in some sort of form. And I used to work for an insurance company years and years ago. And I know there's different plans you can negotiate, different out-of-pockets contributions from the employer, deductibles, things like that. That can all be negotiated or figured out, some sort of thing. So I'd like to ask the Chief of Police, do you have health care? Whoever wants it. So they contribute, and do we contribute as part of the thing? Okay, because the way I read this contract, it says, you know, they would provide in the contract an exam every other year and whatever, ultrasounds or imaging type things are necessary. But it doesn't go into, and then it talks about insurance and other things like that, but it doesn't say specifically whether the officers have you know a health care where let's say they get sick they can go to the doctor and they may have to pay a copayment or something like that but they are covered. So I just am concerned about that part. OK so there is coverage that is paid for. OK so that's that's the answer to my question. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Next next up for about the police contract.

Alexandra Baza, 120 Northwest 36th Street. I just, I'm not sure if I'm not understanding correctly. So today you're approving or disproving the agreement that started in October?

Last October? So it would be retroactively effective to October, yes.

So this will go until this coming October?

And we're going to this coming up.

So now you're going to start negotiating the one that is going to be for another year or another three years?

Yeah, they'll start negotiating this from what I understand. But you can ask. I mean, they can answer that. I'm not part of it.

Okay. Yeah, no. I heard that part. So the question is... I know that we went back and forth a lot about how it was my position last year that the salary should be a bigger component of the budget as opposed to cars or other items for the police budget. uh you know assault weapons and things that i think are overkill for our town uh so if i know that you're gonna present like a more detailed uh part of the budget next year next week so that's kind of what i wanted to see so we can review it for the next uh negotiation thank you i see what you're saying yeah i understand what you're saying i understand thank you miss buzz i see what you're saying

She's saying the budget itself, because the budget's the one that lists the line items. So in the police budget, the line items will be listed in the budget, right? Salaries, cars, whatever they use. And what she's saying is the negotiators, so she's basically talking about the manager, the attorney, CFO, so you guys need to basically look at the budget and understand the different line items and kind of like where you want to prioritize or put like the weight so that when you go to negotiations, it reflects that basically. Yes, go ahead, the floor is yours.

Hi, Denise White, 173 Northwest 88th Street. I've been working on that, Tom. What you call it? So when I looked at the budget, and I'd be worried about the fact that we don't have any money, I'd be like, that's crazy. But then when Dade County did, I'm a teacher. So when Dade County did their thing, and they told us, well, the governor said he's not giving a lot to public education, so ooh, they don't know what they're going to do. And we were faced with not having a raise. I was a little distressed. So I can understand civil servants who are concerned about the fact that maybe they're not going to get a rate because Miami-Dade. And I know, I know. We just got to do better about getting some money or make your money. I'm not sure how because, you know, we got Adam Neumann looming over our head and he might be non-profit. But we got to do better at making money because civil servants, people who serve. I am a teacher. I am one who serves. And if Dade County say they can't give me no raise next year, I'm going to have a problem. So I can only imagine how my police brethren have a problem. But I will say y'all make more money than us. But at the same time, every year cost of living goes up. So for us to say, well, we have a very safe village and we're not being, and I don't think we should be majorly competitive, but somewhat competitive so that the people who are here and the police officers who have invested in our little town If we keep changing people, that's not going to be good for us. They're not going to know us. They're not going to know, you know, that Mr. So-and-so's dog gets out every now and then, but it's okay. You don't got to, you know, arrest Mr. So-and-so. Because these officers have been here for a little while. I mean, I don't know a lot of them, but I know that when I go to the park, there are some that open that door up at 6 o'clock. They were doing it earlier. I liked it when y'all do it earlier. But no stress. No stress, fellas. So that's just mine. And I do know that we have a budget problem. I'm quite aware of our budget problem. But then we have to do better together to find the monies that we need to make sure that El Portal is safe. Yes? Amen.

Thank you very much. Just a quick reminder, Florida is 50th in the U.S. for teacher pay, 50th.

Thank you very much, Councilperson Ervam. Anybody else for the police budget? I mean, police contract, you guys.

Greg Steer, 120 Northwest 86th Street. Just real quick, I mean, this budget contract is basically over, so I think it would be a good idea to just move on it. But in the future, I think we should be negotiating, I think three-year contract is pretty ambitious considering everything that's happening or could be happening in the village. But that is a contract that we should already negotiate. I THINK, BE TALKING ABOUT INSTEAD OF WAITING UNTIL IT'S ALMOST ALREADY FINISHED. 60% OF THE BUDGET ON PUBLIC SAFETY SEEMS REALLY HIGH TO ME, CONSIDERING THE LEVEL OF CRIME, WHICH IS TRENDING DOWNWARD, NOT JUST COUNTYWIDE, BUT STATEWIDE, NATIONALLY AS WELL. CRIME IS GOING DOWN, HAS BEEN GOING DOWN FOR OVER A DECADE. I ALSO THINK IT WOULD BE VERY HELPFUL TO ACTUALLY SEE THE ACTUAL SALARIES IN THE INTEREST OF TRANSPARENCY. THAT'S SOMETHING THAT'S MISSING. AND ALSO THE REPORT, SOME SORT OF REPORT ON THE FISCAL IMPACT OF THIS CONTRACT ON THE BUDGET. I'D LIKE TO TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT WHAT WE'RE ACTUALLY SPENDING ON VEHICLES, ON EQUIPMENT. AS SEVERAL PEOPLE HAVE POINTED OUT, WE DON'T HAVE A LOT OF ROOM FOR ERROR. THERE'S NO MONEY IN THE BANK. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Scott Kobrick, 400 Northeast 85th Street. Hello. So, yeah, I am all for the definitely having the police department, and I just wanted to, I wasn't even planning to say anything about it, but I just heard that it's the 60% of the budget, and My house was actually broken into a couple weeks ago. I woke up into somebody in my bedroom with a mask and a flashlight. Right down the street here, I woke up at 2 a.m. to somebody in my bedroom. My air conditioning was broken, so I had left my windows open. So I did believe that it was a little bit safer and a safe neighborhood. But anyway, I woke up immediately. I chased them out of the house. They left their – while I was chasing them, they left their Crocs there. Um, but like they kicked off their Crocs, um, and afterwards the, the police, uh, responded very quickly, which was great. And I think it's very important to have, uh, the, the benefit of, of that, uh, as I've dealt with city of Miami police where it takes way longer. Um, and the response time was really, really great. Um, And the one thing that that brings to mind that I wanted to mention, though, is with respect to the budget, because afterwards, as a follow up to the investigation, I had wanted the police department to take the Crocs for evidence. and for DNA, and also to enter my watch into a very popular database called Leads Online, which basically has any pawn shop, because I think I forgot to mention my watch was stolen, and would notify any pawn shop. Any pawn shop that would get the watch, the police department would be notified within 24 hours. that serial number so I was told that you know we don't really have the equipment or money or any maybe you know coordinating coordination with the county or anything like that to a get DNA on the Crocs well I actually think I was told that because I handled them um and move them uh outside that uh that the the that might have impacted it um but as far as the watch and the subscription um it does seem like something that we should be able to have access to as a village if sixty percent of our budget is uh going towards that so anyway uh thank you very much uh that's my comment and thank you to the police department for everything you do uh thank you thank you uh mr cobra have you had follow-up on any of those items Yes, I did speak to Sergeant Gutierrez, and he informed me of some of where we were at. But the... The disappointing thing is that we don't have access to the leads online and that there's no, like we don't have a subscription or coordination with any.

I'm sorry to interrupt, Mayor, but it's not appropriate for the details of the ongoing police investigation to be discussed publicly and information could be revealed that would be counter to the ability of the police to do their job. No disrespect to anybody. But I do have to interrupt that. I'm sorry.

Thank you. All right. Thank you. I hope Mr. Cobra, you're getting the help that you need. I can say thank you very much.

Okay, thank you very much.

Anybody else for police contract, good and welfare or public comment?

Daniel Rojas, 60 Northeast 86th Street. Just I guess going back on the budget, I know in the previous budget we had set aside a certain amount for the salaries. Just want to make sure it reconciles with the amount that is in the agreement. Just to make sure all all officers actually lined up with this this amount. And then also I think I'll end up with Greg with respect that there is no actual details given on salary or base pay per position and what the differences are for the different positions if there is any any differences between a lieutenant and a captain and things like that. AND I JUST THANK YOU TO MR. GELLER FOR CLEARING UP THAT NEGOTIATIONS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN SOON FOR THE NEXT ONE. THAT WOULD BE VERY IMPORTANT. AND THAT'S ABOUT IT FOR ME. THANK YOU ON THIS ONE.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH, MR. ROJAS. ANYONE ELSE, POLICE CONTRACT? GOING ONCE. GOING TWICE. Going three times. All right, you guys bring back to council. Any other comments or questions you guys have?

Just to reiterate that, that, try and be succinct here okay so to uh mr steer's point of the uh low number of arrests um i would hope that going forward all law enforcement would start to look more towards like white collar crimes and things like that uh um so i would hope that we would have a police department to be able to be of assistance uh for kind of um uh more of those crimes, especially as the growth of Miami is going to be bringing in more scammers and things like this. I fundamentally believe that if you don't want an officer having an envelope of money, his pocket then you compensate that officer you provide a benefit package that is adequate to that officer you give them the dignity in that so that they come to work and do the right thing every day it is very much a people business The people business I worked in for 25 years is food service. And so within all of that, you understand. So I'm talking bars and restaurants, right? So people drinking and things. I mean, I've just been around alcohol and drugs for 25 years essentially, right? So in all of that, you get to know different aspects of law enforcement as well. And so I just fundamentally believe that you must have a compensation package that gives you the things you believe. Now, a small village like us, I believe there's an opportunity for us to be, we might have younger people coming in and they, our ambition to go do big things and things of this effect. I don't see why we couldn't be a village where we have essentially a training program with officers with experience being matched with some younger officers and having a department knowing that we're not going to be able to keep everyone. So within the restaurant business, The biggest argument that I had with the owner of the place I was working or the GM as I got into supervisory and management roles, the thing I would go head to head with the owner of the company over most often was time spent on training staff because there is no industry on earth that has a higher turnover rate than the hospitality industry. So the question becomes, why should I spend time training anybody at my restaurant if I know they're going to be gone in three months, six days, five months, 10 months? Most won't make a year. Because if you have it as an industry standard, and you participate in an industry standard, then you have a larger, more talented, more skilled base to get employees from. So it doesn't concern me so greatly in terms of turnover more than I would want to have a plan for that turnover, understanding that it's something that's going to happen. And so having these ideas of wanting to discuss these things, we cannot, under Sunshine Laws, discuss these things without an executive session, which is why that was my request earlier.

Thank you very much. Any last questions or comments before I go to a vote? We're good? Do I have a motion to approve the CBA police agreement? So moved. Moved by Councilperson Lightfoot Ward. I'll second. Second by Councilperson Erbaum. Madam Clerk, may I please have a roll call, please?

Roll call. Lightfoot Ward. Yes. Councilperson Erbaum?

Yes.

Mayor Nickerson? Yes. Motion passes 3 to 9. Thank you very much.

Mayor, item F2, a resolution of the Village Council of El Pertal, Florida, providing for installation of speed humps and signs, providing for incorporation of recitals, providing for authorization, and providing for an effective date.

Thank you very much. Before I open it up, is there any other discussion? Let me just say really quickly, after Councilperson Winters' thing that he said, which he didn't vote for last year, but let me just say respectfully, I didn't mean that to be disrespectful, you can change your vote. Even though you voted for something, you can change your mind later on. We all have that option. All right, any questions or comments from the council before I open it up to the audience? No. All right, and for the audience, yeah, go ahead. For the speed humps.

Timbo City, 149 Northeast 89th. Totally understand your point. Mayor Omar around proof last year, but I mean, I think it doesn't necessarily mean we have to spend the money, lock ourselves into something now. A lot has changed, obviously, in the last year and a half with what could come here in terms of traffic with flow, traffic potentially with the school, other development. And to your point around, yeah, absolutely, we get funding in for other things that aren't from our taxpayer dollars, but there are, Yeah, sometimes very specific ways we can use it, sometimes more broad and general ways that we can use it. And so I think even if this is something that has been approved and we think is ultimately a great idea, from my perspective, I think ultimately more speed humps is probably fantastic. I wouldn't disagree with the original idea. With the original motion there, but I'm more saying, like, we have a lot going on right now, and we don't really know. We're a little bit fine blind as far as budget, as far as all the things going on. To me, it seems like not the time to spend or lock ourselves into spending more money on things like that that we might want to rip up in a year because it doesn't fit a comprehensive traffic plan based on everything else that's going on.

Thank you. Thank you. I'll respond after all of you guys speak.

Hello, Ian McKenzie, 8950 Northeast 4th Avenue. I agree with the previous speaker, totally. I'd also further like to read something from this section where it says, Section 2 approval, that the Village Council approves all driveway solutions to continue speed, hump and sign installation and authorize the expenditure of funds necessary to carry out our future speed hump and sign installation. So by that, I take it, and our attorney can certainly comment on this, as this is a contract to say that you can go ahead and carry out and pay and do these things. And I caution you about that because Before we even know what money we have, we should really look at that and vote no. I encourage you to vote no on this. You can always revisit it. And also I've learned in negotiating things and contracts and things in business over 40 years that if a price that they've quoted you is good, great. doesn't mean you have to take it. If they don't want to offer that or extend that at a future date, then there probably was something going on or some changes and there would be some shortcuts taken or something. So, you know, don't let the price, the fact, oh, my God, I'm going to lose out. Because you never know what you can get from somebody else. Maybe if you re... open up the bid again and so forth. So they could even give you a better price because they may realize they didn't get the bid the first time. So, you know, I just think it's really, and I'm not against speed bumps in any way. In fact, I was the one who suggested putting in speed bumps before spending $1.7 million on a traffic circle that looks like nothing, kind of, if you look at it. And I've been around that area. So the other thing for the traffic circle, you can also take a light meter and use the light meter to gauge how bright the lights are and compare it to other things. And that would provide substantial documentation for, you know, arguing for a dimming of the lights if needed. So anyhow, those are just some of the thoughts.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Next for speed humps.

Alexandra Baza, 120 Northwest 86th Street. I understand that the project was approved last year, but at the same time, I know that there were changes within the budget that were not expected as, you know, like the income that was supposed to come from the project in Cavista that changed. So those adjustments need to be taken into consideration. Thank you.

Thank you.

Denise 173 Northwest 88th Street. I just have a question. Why we need steep bumps if we got the roundabout. I thought the roundabout was supposed to make it so that people slow down because we asked for speed bumps and they told us no we couldn't handle speed bumps or something like that. So then we couldn't get no speed bumps. So if we got the roundabout all the seven hundred thousand dollar roundabout he was five hundred thousand was a match grant. But we ended up paying $700,000, something like that. Anyway, I'm not completely sure, but I think that's how it went. So I just want to know, why we got to have speed bumps? I mean, it's not like we big like Miami Shores, so we don't got to do everything Miami Shores does. We have speed bumps on 86 already. And then, oh, my gosh, there goes that crazy budget again. Yeah, I think we should rethink that because we did pass the roundabout that nobody wanted. So I think we should just rethink that. That's just my opinion. You can't trust nobody wearing a tutu, but that's my opinion.

Anybody else for the speed humps? Speed humps going once. Come on.

Daniel Rojas, 16 Northeast 86th Street. I just wanted to ask what the total contract value for this phase of the Speed Pump project would be?

$17,000.

$17,000. And then, so it's a non-competitive bid.

It went through the procurement. I can read the thing off of the last year's resolution again.

Right, right, right. So, and then we are satisfied with the work that they did and hence we want to keep them.

We are. I believe all your neighbors love the speedy humps. I hear from Ms. Krakenbush, I hear from Terry, you know,

Much better than what we have. And still people try to speed in between the speed bumps, which is not the most efficient thing. But from what it used to be. Better than before, yes. That's why I appreciate that. I'm grateful for the speed bumps. Just want to make sure we have clarification on those little items that weren't visible to us.

Thank you. Thank you very, very much.

Anyone else for the speed bumps?

All right, going once, going twice speed humps, going three times. All right, so the first thing I'm going to say is this. What was being argued is not what's up for tonight. The speed humps were passed last year. The second whereas is for the village-wide speed humps. The Village of El Portal has reviewed three proposals, copies of which are attached here too, and finds that the proposed quote for the installation of speed humps and signs obtained by all driveway solutions is the lowest responsive and responsible proposal, and that is the proper source of procurement under Florida law. Like I said, all I'm doing for transparency reasons is coming back here. and saying, hey, instead of, which we have every right to do, instead of me just popping up with speed humps two months from now or next week or tomorrow, what I'm saying is that all driveway speed humps that have been down, right, that are satisfactory to the residents where they are, over the past year we've looked at their work, we've studied their work, we've reviewed their work, their work is satisfactory. All this does tonight is say we've studied their work, we've reviewed their work, their work is satisfactory. If I didn't have If I didn't have the tonight's thing from last year, I can put in a speed bump tomorrow. I can put in a speed bump next week. I can put a speed bump too much from now. Resolutions don't expire after one year, five years, 10 years. And it's interesting because something told me, because I say, people always say, transparency, more transparency, more transparency. And I said, you know what? I was sitting there writing a resolution. I said, I can be transparent. This is never done, because usually when you go through the procurement process, you just do whatever the procurement results are. That's what you do. Like we have, for example, we use CAP government. We use different consultants. We use Corradino Group. We've never come back with a resolution and say, hey, for Corradino Group, I have a resolution that we're going to use them for the next two months. We never do that. But everybody wants more transparency. So that's what I try to do. But what's done, though, was done last year. Now, this right here, what we're doing tonight, that doesn't mean that we have to put speed bumps out tomorrow. I did this one, we did this one last year. I put some speed bumps out, I didn't put them out for the rest of the year, why? Because of things you guys brought up, budget, where we are now, what are our priorities. Oh, but this one last year, I could have put down 100 speed humps. over the past year. So it's already done. I'm just trying to be more transparent as far as the work that was done we've looked at it, we've reviewed it, it's satisfactory. So, maybe we won't put another speed hump down for three more years. But we're going through the procurement process. Questions, comments from the council?

So it's not that I'm against speed bumps, it's that I have low confidence in competent execution of speed bumps. What I mean by that is, I want to understand what thought was put into the harmonics of the road that the speed bump's going to be put on matched with the shape and material of the speed bump. So on Park Drive here, for example, you can clear that speed bump down there that's five mile an hour is listed, which you will regret if you're at 10 or 15. but as I've said before at multiple meetings 40 to 45 miles an hour on that long straight there is actually just about as easy on your vehicle as five There's a lead up where you can accomplish 40 to 45 miles an hour on Park Drive. Other streets there may not be such lead time from it. I do find the speed bumps over Miami Shores to be effective. They're plateaus. You rise up onto the plateau and then drop down off the other side of the plateau. As someone who is a master of pine tree drive at 45 miles an hour without hurting my suspension, let me explain to you. that the speed bumps in Miami Shores with the plateau are effective, far more effective than anything they've ever put on Pine Tree. I did, now Tiger Tail, okay, in Coconut Grove, I don't know if many of you are familiar with the entirety of Tiger Tail, but there is one intersection, it's not a speed bump, it's offset teardrop concrete formations that are actually quite small footprint of like i don't know like less than 10 square feet 12 square feet something like that but they're offset in the middle of the intersection they accomplish a safe island for pedestrian they accomplish breaking up a dead straight path through multiple blocks without any interruption from a stop sign or other And so it's easy to just find yourself with the natural progression of the road. You'll be at 60 miles an hour by the time you get down to the stop sign at, I forget what it is, but I wanna say 17th Avenue. The point being that there are multiple options for either breaking up a straightaway, which accomplishes slowing down traffic on a road that has straightaways, And then again, which speed bump is going in, exactly how it's designed, where exactly on the street it's placed because of the momentum that is accomplished from wherever the person's most recent stop point is to where the next stop point is on a street. However long that is and however straight it is, the longer and straighter the higher speed you have. I mean, I grew up on I-70, V8. They didn't make a V8 that could even go fast enough on I-70. The road is designed for a car to be going at literally close to 200 miles an hour. There's 170 mile rated turns on I-70. It was a fantastically fun road to grow up driving on. But it's... It's engineered specifically to accomplish incredibly rapid caravans of incredibly massive vehicles, right? Well, El Portal's a little different. We don't need I-10 running through El Portal. We already have 95. The point being that I'm not against speed bumps. I just want to know that what we're putting in has... Data, there's established databases on what's gonna happen or what can be accomplished to overcome a speed bump. And then I will maintain that Plusserbia, the resilient streets project that they've offered us, I do believe that there is a mathematical path to accomplishing a labyrinth of one-way streets in El Portal which would accomplish village-wide traffic speed mediation because locals will understand how to navigate it. and outsiders will be confused by it and will stay out so my i maintain that the most efficient thing we can possibly do is uh is uh i mean miami shores is not going to tear down the walls that they built you know for racial reasons back in uh whenever they did that's it doesn't that's not a that's not a an efficient path to then start to decide what we're going to do once those streets would be open so I maintain that I am in favor of El Portal, the labyrinth.

Thank you very much, Councilperson Erbaum. Have you ever rode over to the west side and went over those speed bumps over there?

Yes, they're effective, but those are actually... They're almost too effective, meaning that it's like you're punishing the locals sometimes with speed bumps like that. There is a factor of do you punish everybody to address a small percentage of violators, essentially. And so I'm not a fan of punitive speed bumps.

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't consider them as punitive. I would consider them, they work, right? And they bring safety to the speeders that are there so the kids can play outside.

Park drive works, but there are people who have learned that it's better for their car at 45 miles an hour. And then the expectation around that speed bump is five. So when you have an offset expectation of speed versus reality, this is how you get a pedestrian hit, which would be worst case scenario, and then everything below that. So I believe that that's what I'm speaking to. So, yeah.

No, I hear you. I would just say that if we feel like Yeah, I hear you, I hear you. No, I hear you, I hear you, my brother. I would say that if we feel like speed humps, which we passed last year village-wide, if we feel like that's something that we want to continue, whether it's a year from now, three years from now, five years from now, resolutions don't expire, then there's nothing against continuing to solidify that the work that was done was quality work for us. Now, what I can also do, which I'm not sure if I would do it, to be transparent, is every time I put in a single speed hump from now on, I can just bring it back to the council You know, even though I don't have to, right, because we already voted for village-wide. But if, you know, if it's going to be the same argument for every individual speed hump, then I don't know.

Right, so you'd want to have a prescribed plan already of what types of bumps where you'd want to have.

Which was already done in last year, right? Everything was already done last year. The attachment to last year had everything.

so well we're so i would move the table this to october so that the budget would be in uh we would have clarity on the budget i think that is probably the single largest concern across the board seems to be and then additionally in that time there would be the ability for the public to understand what is going where and so that is my motion to table this to October for those purposes yeah I disagree with that but there's a motion on the table is there a second we have a motion on the table yes second to the motion

going once going twice three times motions fails for a lack of a second is there another motion for the resolution, you move your motion for the resolution, Council President Blackfoot-Wood? Yes. We have a motion, do we have a second? Second going once.

Well, hold on before you count that out. The collective bargaining agreement with the Fraternal Board of Police Effective. We did that.

Do we have a second? We did that, we did that, Council President Wood. We're under speed humps right now.

Yeah, we're done. Yes. Yes. Yes. We have a second going once. We have a second going twice.

We have a second going three times. Fails for lack of a second. Motion fails. Do I have another motion of any sort? Do I have no motion?

I have no motion beyond what I've already presented, so I would only be making the same motion.

So we have no motion. No motion going once. No motion going twice. No motion. We have no motion on F2. Let's move to agenda item G1. Attorney Geller.

Yes, sir. Agenda item D1, as I discussed with the council at the last meeting, is regarding our joining the proposed property tax constitutional amendment challenge. I've circulated some correspondence from an attorney at Weiss Sirota and a copy of the lawsuit that they filed. We frequently get the opportunity to join some litigation against some misguided thing that the state legislature does. As a former member of that body, I feel comfortable using that description of their actions. They're not helpful often. I can't say always, but often, certainly to a city of our size trying to survive. That said, most often when we get the opportunity to join such a lawsuit, it comes with a price tag. And, you know, $10,000 to contribute to the costs is not all the money in the world, but it's a heck of a lot more affordable if you're the city of Miami or the city of Hialeah or some other city that has a lot of money that's not us. This is unique because it's being funded by a nonprofit corporation. And so we've been invited to join as a party plaintiff for free. I like free. Free is good. Free doesn't cost anybody here any money. The only possible downside I could see if the suit completely failed, I suppose someone could move for costs against the plaintiffs. Hopefully, the nonprofit would cover that as well. Even if it didn't, I don't see this as a very high-cost case. Even getting an award of costs wouldn't necessarily be simple. But frankly, there's not a lot of depositions. There's not a lot of experts. This is pretty much presenting the language, arguing it before the court. So it's a relatively low-cost case. Based on that, I see little, not zero, but little possibility that, worst case, it could cost us any money. And in all likelihood, we just get to lend our voice to it. And, of course, if that passes as written, it would be devastating to this village. I recommend to you that we join the lawsuit free of charge. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Any questions or comments before we turn it over?

I just have a comment. My favorite line from the Big Lebowski is, nihilist, or no, I'm sorry, I already messed up. Fair? Who's the nihilist here, right? So I often get, I was raised ultra-conservative, so it's only natural that at some point in my life, I am eventually the conservative in the room, even though I have not been a conservative for an exceptionally long time now. And so about a year ago, I was explaining to my wife that if you could picture a mountain top, a rocky mountain, okay, like a mountain top rock, okay? And halfway down that mountain, you have a lush plateau, a very lush plateau. But that plateau is mostly soil, not a lot of rock, right? Well, if you could imagine, you know, I don't know, an earthquake, I suppose, or something to that effect that would kind of shake that plateau loose, the entirety of this lush, fertile plateau that's supporting all types of communities collapses into the valley of the mountain. So that is what's happening to the middle class in this country. The unbelievably wealthy are placing side bets as entertainment on the end of our economy so that they can begin the fire sale of acquiring industries, wholesale neighborhoods, wholesale retail, wholesale. All right. So there is a eliminating of what you call small to medium businesses and a consolidation of what you would call mega businesses.

Okay.

I've mentioned several times I worked in restaurants a lot. I don't often speak of it, but I worked always at the highest levels of the food service industry. And so we would have people come into the restaurants wherever I was working. And, oh man, that guy's the, That guy's the owner of Navarro Pharmaceuticals. Oh, my God. Stuff like this. How much is he worth? $300 million. So people mumble and, oh, man, can you believe this? It's not always just celebrities. Fame and fortune give me fortune. I have no interest in fame, but give me fortune. So you'd have all these fortunate people come in and you'd have... pretty regular people waiting on them and pretty impressed by the wealth, right? So I'd kind of calm them down and say, guys, that person has $300 million. They still measure their wealth in dollars. They still get their food from Publix. They get their food from the same place you get your food from. When you're talking ultra-wealthy, you're talking people who trade mountain ranges for ocean floors. That's what we're talking about. The people who trade mountain ranges for ocean floors, they are collapsing the middle class. I believe in property rights, and when we talk about these things, I'm not against some of them, but there has to be a plan. So if you're going to make a cataclysmic change to the way things are, then there must be a plan for what's going to happen afterwards. And so my concern with all of this is in that realm of where's the plan, so it's deeply concerning.

Thank you very much, Council President Warren. Any other comments from the council? Hearing, seeing none, do I have a motion to adjourn? Do I have a, what motion do you want, Attorney Geller?

The request is that we join the lawsuit.

But you said you were going to join. It's free.

But I can't do it without your authorization.

Oh, I thought you were saying that you were going to join.

It won't cost us money, but somebody has to move that we add our name as a plaintiff, provided there's no charge.

I move to direct the attorney to join. Any lawsuit available to take on home rule issues in the state of Florida? Do you have a second?

Madam Clerk, you have a roll call.

ROLL CALL, COUNCILPERSON LIGHTFOOT WARD. COUNCILPERSON URBAN. YES. MAYOR NAKERSON. YES.

MOTION PASSES THREE TO NONE. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. DO I HAVE A MOTION TO ADJOURN?

I'LL SECOND. MOTION MOVED BY COUNCILPERSON LIGHTFOOT WARD.

SECOND BY COUNCILPERSON URBAN. ALL IN FAVOR SAY AYE. AYE. OPPOSED SAY NAY. HEARING NONE. THE SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING FOR WEDNESDAY JULY 1, 2026 IS ADJOURNED AT 825 PM. THANK YOU.