Town Council - Regular Meeting

Want to welcome everyone to the official meeting of the May 19th, 2026, Town of Golden Beach, regular town council meeting, called for 6 p.m. Time is approximately 6.07 p.m. Meeting officially called to order. Town Clerk, can you call roll, please?

Mayor Singer? Here. Vice Mayor Mendel? Here. Council Member Luskin? Here. Council Member Einstein? Here. Council Member Bernstein? Here.

OK, if everyone could please rise. Chief Rudy Habello, can you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please?

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. Welcome, everybody. First, we have some presentations and proclamations. And once again, this evening, Golden Beach is proud to promote National Safe Boating Week. And I believe we have someone here from the Coast Guard. So I'd like to present this proclamation to you. You could come up here. And your name is? I'm sorry, say it again.

Neil Kuritsky, Flotilla Commander, Flotilla 39.

Well, welcome and thank you for coming. And the town of Golden Beach tonight is going to issue a proclamation for National Boating Week. Whereas the town and me as mayor, Glenn Singer, the town council and the town of Golden Beach hereby proclaim May 16th to May 22nd, 2026, a national safe boating week. and the start of a year-round effort to promote safe boating practices throughout the town of Golden Beach. In this day and age, every week you seem to see something in the newspaper on TV where there's been a boating accident. So if there ever was a time for people to have, especially with the holidays coming up, promote safe boating week, I believe this would be it. And on an average, approximately 650 individuals lose their lives annually in boating related accidents in the United States, with nearly 75 percent of those fatalities resulting from drowning. And whereas by the majority of the tragic incidents, are preventable and primarily caused by human error and poor judgment rather than the equipment, the environmental conditions, and whereas by a significant number of lives could have been saved every year through the constant and proper use of life jackets, and whereas National Boating Safety Week is observed to raise awareness of importance of life-saving tips for recreational boaters so that they may have a safer and more enjoyable experience on the waters throughout the year and whereas by practicing basic boating safety procedures we can help ensure that boaters remain safe throughout the season and whereas the town of golden beach hereby supports the goals of the safe boating campaign and urges all those who boat to practice safe boating habits and always wear a life jacket while on the water. And this evening, the town is proud to present you this proclamation. Thank you very much. Can you turn around for a great picture? Let's get in here. Guys, get in. Get in, Ken.

Ben.

Everybody here? Am I blocking you? Am I?

Do you want to share a few words or do you want to share a few words? And Mr. Mayor, while he gets to the podium, I would like to take this moment to just, and I'll be doing a little bit of this throughout the meeting, inform the public of things that are changing in our community and in our state. It's important that the members of our residential community and our voting community understand that as of July 1st, we no longer have the authority as a local municipal entity to create safety inspections or to conduct any type of marine patrol enforcement unless the officer sees that an actual, there is probable cause that exists for us to have a legitimate stop. We now need to treat the boats like we do police cars, right? So unless we see a visible infraction, the governor and the state legislature has now hampered our ability to ask people to slow down, because there's no way to check people's velocity unless we see a big break. And so with over 900,000 vessels registered in the state of Florida, with the summer upon us, it's important for us to be aware that we're no longer able to do those enforcements. At the same time, I wanna take this opportunity before the speaker speaks, to commend our Marine Patrol unit. Our Marine Patrol unit, as you know, this past, two weeks ago, at the Hollover Sandbar, there was an explosion and a fire. We were the first responders to that call. Chief Ribello attended a meeting just this week where all the neighboring agencies and the governing bodies of the waterway commended Golden Beach for how quickly and professional our unit responded and started to pull people out of the water. and provide first aid and so officer gonzalez will be recognized at the june meeting but i did not want to wait another 30 days to publicly say that i'm very proud of the work that our men and women provide not only to our residents but to the overall south florida boating community and officer gonzalez should be recognized for that i could tell you it was really cool for me i mean it was an unfortunate situation but it was really cool for me to see our new fluid boat racing there and everyone filming it and seeing Officer Gonzalez providing that. So kudos to him. But again, I want everyone to be aware of the rules that have changed. With that, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I would just like to add a couple of things. Number one, the Coast Guard is not bound by those rules. But unfortunately, we don't have enough presence as the state does. Secondly, we do offer free vessel inspections. with no penalty if there are any problems. We don't report it if we find any problems. So we give Coast Guard stickers, not the state stickers which are self-certified, but we have Coast Guard stickers for free vessel examinations. But more important, we offer free classes. boat safety classes, and it's not just people who live on the water or who own boats who benefit. I think the public overall would benefit from free classes. We just did one last Saturday in Pembroke Pines, last month in Fort Lauderdale, and speaking here to the Assistant Chief, we hope we can do something with yours at town as well. Thank you very much, Mayor and Councilman.

Thank you. Okay. Next is, I believe we have a cake this evening to present. Yes. As it is Golden Beach's 97th birthday. So we have a cake to present.

And Mr. Mayor, while the staff rolls in the cake, you know, we tend not to do big fan fairs as part of our every year. I just wanted to share with the council, and again, I'm going to make a lot of announcements tonight. It became somewhat interesting to me as I drove around town and we're finishing the wellness center and the like, and I brought this idea to the mayor and he blessed it. And so know that we're gonna be bringing something to you. The Ralston brothers are not recognized anywhere in town. There's no monument, plaque, memorial. Jack Twiddle has a plaque, but the founding brothers of our city are not honored anywhere. So know that during the summer, the staff and I will be working on finding an appropriate place that we could dedicate in honor of the founding members of our community and also for the members of our community who have dedicated their lives to public service to this community. So we'll be working over the summer to identify an appropriate location to recognize the brothers and those legacy council members who have served in the past. And so we'll be working on that. So today, as part of our 97th, we have a special cake that we'll be cutting and sharing with the council and those members of the audience and know that we'll be working to honor the brothers and those councils who have served a significant amount of time moving forward. And we'll present to you at your October meeting a plan on how to do that recognition. And so congratulations, Golden Beach, for your 97 years of incorporations.

Happy birthday to you.

Make sure you invite the Ralston brothers to you.

Well, they're ancestors. Can we take a picture with the council and the cake? And then somebody cut the cake. And make sure I get some this time. I didn't get my birthday cake. So I won't be.

You track down their family? No.

Let's take a picture real quick.

All right. We'll go. There's a hint why you don't get birthday cake.

I talk too much. I know. That's why. No, not that. Can you get the cake in?

No. Why don't you put the cake? We'll hold the cake. With a slide? This way you can get it.

I don't trust your grip. Do we see it?

Ready?

Three, two, one.

Happy birthday. All right. Thank you, Alex. Thank you guys for the cake.

All right. Make sure I get a piece.

We'll never hear the end of it. He doesn't get the first. I don't need it.

Okay, moving right along. Motion to set agendas. Additions, deletions, remove items from the consent agenda. Agenda changes to the agenda. I have none. Fellow council?

None.

Staff? Mr. Mayor, I'd like to add to item number five. I'd like to change the total project amount from 720,000 to 740,000 in the memo, and I'll discuss it during the item.

On resolution number five? Yes. 750? 740. Seven what? 740. 740? Yeah.

And I'll tell the council why when we get to that point. That's not a change to the agenda. So that's just an addition to that item. I don't want to make it as an amendment. So just, yeah.

Okay. Everyone understand that? Anyone oppose that? No. Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Good. Passes. Next is good and welfare. Do we have anyone here from the public on good and welfare? Anyone on the Zoom from good and welfare? Good and welfare going once.

Good and welfare going twice. Good and welfare is gone.

Moving right along. Mayor's report. We just had a meeting two weeks ago. The only thing I'm going to add is, as I said last time, the hurricane season is upon us. June 1st starts hurricane season. So I can urge the residents to prepare their houses now as they're predicting again another vicious cycle of storms. So if you need the town's assistance or need some recommendations, the town is more than Glad to help you to help you hurricane proof your house. But especially if you're going to wait for the summer, please secure everything in your backyard and make sure you have a plan, especially if you have a boat. If you have a boat, you definitely need a hurricane plan. So make sure that's all in place. Again, it starts June 1st. Second parks town manager go over the exact schedule But I know we're gonna close the pickleball courts probably in the next two weeks and the tennis court Town manager figured out a way that we can keep it open for a little longer. So we're excited about that Next is Memorial Day coming up.

I

a big event plan it's always a great event for the residents and everyone who attends and your guests so I suggest everyone plan on Monday Memorial Day that's Monday right yeah yeah at 6 p.m. 5 5 p.m. and councilwoman Luskin will in during her Her comments will tell us exactly what's going on, but I recommend everyone attending. I want everyone to, you know, enjoy the summer. I want to thank two council members. Tonight we're going to approve the kids park. Plan and I know councilman Einstein and councilwoman Mendel have been working exceptionally hard on on that plan So I want to thank you guys for your hard work on the kids park and hopefully we'll get that approved So we can order the equipment tonight. That's all I have again. Have a great summer Next I'm gonna go to council comments. I'll start with vice mayor. I

None.

Nothing? That was quick. Go to the other side. Councilman Einstein? Yeah, hi. Thank you.

And I mentioned this to the town manager. We're working on it. But I wanted to just address this in a public forum. I don't know if any of you had solicitations in terms of tree cutting service or window washing in the past where they slip cards in your mailbox. They come to your door, actually put them in your door. And, you know, in light of all the things that are sort of going on in the country and in the world and we sort of being a very secure neighborhood, I want the police to be aware of, you know, when these guys come into town and start, you know, jumping out of your cars and run into different mailboxes, whether it's maid service, they're trying to garner or whatever. As you know, they could be checking out my house, the neighbor's house to see if someone's there. And I know we have our camera systems, I know that won't really be triggered until a certain time during the day, but I would just like officers to be vigilant. I know we got Amazon trucks, we got a variety of different type of trucks, people delivering newspapers, but when they walk into your doorstep, I get a little concerned with that.

Thank you. In terms of good... Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.

In terms of good neighbors, I got a question in terms of I think it was Friday or Saturday night. Can't remember which one, but I'm coming from Sunny Isles heading northward. And there was a boat, I think, that fell off a trailer of some sort that was pulled off to the side. There were four law enforcement officers there. I was backed up in traffic for 45 minutes. I called Sunny Isles. It took them a half an hour to answer the phone call. And a woman really didn't know what was going on when I called her. I called our gatehouse. They weren't really in front of their area, there was no problem. But up until Regalia, there was a significant problem. And part of the problem was there was no officer directing traffic off the William Lehman Causeway. So those cars saying, hey, I've waited here a half an hour, and I'm going into the intersection no matter what and blocking traffic to get through. So I think being a good neighbor in terms of, Police forces, I don't feel like they were very vigilant in terms of getting an officer out into the street. And because I don't think officers don't like that duty, number one. It could be dangerous, and they don't want to get out in the street. You're going to pay an extra to be there. It held up traffic for 45 minutes.

So, Councilman Einstein, help me out.

I like to reach out to them and, you know, with this inner cooperation that we have with other agencies to sort of, you know.

But what do you want them to do?

Have an officer out directing traffic.

Oh, they had?

They had three officers looking at, you know, I don't know. I can't tell you what they were doing. Okay, but there was an incident there, but the traffic was backed up behind for 45 minutes. It shouldn't have been. You know, it was ridiculous.

I'll address it through my comments.

If it was Golden Beach, we'd have people out there moving traffic. There would be somebody. We would hope.

We would try. We've had many incidents. I get complaints all the time. Traffic backed up in Golden Beach. From Sunny Isles, the mayor calls me, you know. Complaining about us all the time. Complaining about Golden Beach. Oh, really? Yeah.

Getting through here.

I'll address it now.

Maybe we should have a cooperation. All right.

When you talk it. All right. Thank you. Anything else?

Town looks great.

What? Town looks great. Hit the golf ball straight. I hit the golf ball straight.

I saw a street sweeper in the street sweeping up. Alex is going to maybe talk about that later on.

Yeah. OK, perfect. Councilman Bernstein.

Very sorry. I had to miss the parks workshop. Just had a wedding and a funeral at the same time. But I heard you guys got a lot done. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilwoman Luskin.

Just to reiterate what the mayor said Memorial Day is May 25th. It'll be a double celebration Memorial Day and America 250 for America's birthday We hope everybody will come. We have a great program plan the champagne toast and I think it'll really be an enjoyable evening I want to also thank Michael Glidden and Eric Garcia for all the help they give me with the program and getting it prepared So thank you again To Alex. Thank you. I had mentioned that I've been doing a lot of walking and Sidewalks were uneven and you got the staff on it and they're all evened out now and where it's not It's been highlighted in pink so people can be aware if there's an issue and lastly the structure on South Parkway and North Parkway that Right on Golden Beach Drive that announces the one on South Parkway If I'm not mistaken, it looks like it needs some good pressure cleaning. You might want to check into that. And that's it for me. Other than that, the town looks beautiful, and thank you.

Thank you.

The parachutes, is that? They'll go through that. Oh, okay, fine. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, guys. Council, town manager's report.

Mr. Mayor, can we have a motion to reconsider the setting of the agenda and have item number four pulled from the consent and moved to the regular agenda at the mayor's request? We forgot to announce that. put to the agenda? You wanted four to be not in consent. And we felt, I forgot to do that. So we just need a motion to reconsider. You didn't do that? I just need a motion to reconsider.

Yeah, four is a resolution.

Resolutions can go on consent. Typically items that don't need discussion will go on consent.

I'll make a motion to remove item number four from the consent agenda.

Consent agenda to the first town resolution, item number P. I'll second Councilman Einstein's. All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay, thank you for catching that.

Mayor, before I get started, I'd just like to recognize, you know, It's not too often that we have boards and committees that are set up to advise the council. And the chairwoman of the Wellness Center Advisory Committee, Mrs. Bada, is in the audience. So I just wanted to say thank you. I know that your committee met several times and provided me with a lot of guidance and feedback. Your role is still not done, but thank you for attending tonight's meeting. And it's good to have you in the audience. So just again, congratulations for the work that your team is doing. And thank you for that. Mayor, members of council, a couple of things that I just want to talk about in general. Maria, this is a note to you. So the council has individually expressed consent for the manager to spend above his spending authority for the purposes of removing a retaining tank that has been identified in town. and we'll deal so administratively with the council's consent with no objections we'll make that the order of the day um moving on i already spoke about the haul over event so um we'll push on the jump this friday um we are going to be hosting uh the jumpers of the U.S. Army Golden Knights. They'll be jumping into our beach area, one jump. There are tandem jumpers. Two of our council members will be jumping in tandem, both Council Member Bernstein and Council Member Luskin, along with David Carozana and Ms. Camacho will be jumping. We are going to be providing hot dogs. I wish I was there. Oh, you're going to kill me. So we will be having hot dogs and hamburgers for all of our residents to come and watch the Knights land in Golden Beach. It is an honor to host them. We do have some commemorative patches that we'll be giving out. It is our kickoff to our Memorial Day weekend. And of course, throughout the weekend, we'll have refreshments at the beach like we always do. And it's culminated with the Memorial Day celebration at five o'clock. at the beach where Councillor Luskin will be hosting that event. Tomorrow from 10 to 2, we are hosting our first in a long time wellness fair. We have a variety of vendors that are coming to do stretching, give you life checks, check your blood pressure, give you financial advice. So the wellness fair will be here in the town chamber and in the bunker, stop by between those hours for a quick free checkup. As a reminder, we will be meeting on June 9th, which is in less than two and a half weeks. And that will be our final meeting before we meet again in September. A couple of just things that are going on in general. I'd like to remind our residents that you're allowed eight people at the beach per household, okay? Unless you have more than eight registered at your house, right? So households need to remember that it's those people who actually live in the house for up to a total of eight. So if you have guests, the totals have to, but guests have to cap at that. I like to remind our residents that more and more of our families are larger households. That doesn't mean that people are getting special treatment or that they're being treated differently than you. And then the way the rules work at the beach, I just want to put this out there, you're afforded numbers of chairs and umbrella if the beach is empty. As more and more guests come, we then ask you to return those chairs and umbrellas because we need to be able to accommodate for all of our beach goers. There hasn't been a problem that there's been a couple of concerns that we just wanna make sure the residents know what our rules are. Mr. Mayor, I'll be working with the town attorney and Linda Epperson. As you know, as of July 1st, our building permit fees can no longer be a percentage of value of work done. So we're looking to work on a, resolution to bring to you because it goes into effect in July and our budget doesn't go into October. So by your June meeting, we'll give you some kind of recommendation on what we could do for how our permit fees are currently set. But we've got to take action at your next meeting. The state legislator has preempted cities from allowing to charge permit fees based on value. And so we've got to come up with a new requirement. There's a lot of changes going on as it relates to building inspections and building services. And we're trying to stay We're trying to stay up with how rapidly the state is forcing things down our throats and how we adjust the way that we provide services. This is not a Golden Beach issue. This is a state of Florida cultural change issue. We just want to make sure that we're adapting accordingly. Also with that, Mr. Mayor, I will talk about the next thing during the project update. I hope that the staff and everyone has a great summer, but we're going to meet again before summer. So let's just.

Okay. Moving right along. Uh, town attorney, Steve, you have anything to say?

Nothing.

Okay. Ordinance is K first reading. There are none. Ordinances second reading, L1, an ordinance of the town council, the town of Golden Beach, amending the town code of ordinances, chapter 24, personnel article two, retirement amending benefits amounts and eligibility for deferred retirement option plan. Town Clerk.

In ordinance of the Town Council of the Town of Golden Beach, Florida, amending Chapter 24, Personnel, Article 2, Retirement, Division 1, General Employees, by amending the Town of Golden Beach Employees Pension Plan at Section 24-33, Benefit Amounts and Eligibility, Section 24-41, Deferred Retirement Option Plan, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, providing for codification, and providing an effective date.

Any motion to approve? Can you second?

Mr. Mayor, real quick, there was no changes from first reading to second reading. This is a housekeeping item, has no fiscal impact. The actuarial has said that. But since I do have the union president in the audience, I just also want to let our staff know what this item does for them. So currently, as you know, our drop program requires that your drop funds stay in the town's pension fund. As of the enactment of this ordinance, once you enter the drop, you may elect once, and once only, to have your drop money go into a qualified plan that you get to manage on your own behalf. You could take risk, no take risk. Right now, the drop money performs as the pension performs. And a lot of the union requests was, can we have a guarantee? Can we have a ceiling? Can we have a floor? This says, you can leave it with us and ride the wave, or not ride the wave, or manage it on your own. This is not in the collective bargaining agreement, so we will need to have a CBA amendment, but this ordinance will now give all of our members who enter the drop the affordability to manage their own drop funds. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. With that, any council comments?

None.

Any public comments? Closer to council, closer to public. Roll call, please.

Mayor Singer?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Mendel? Yes. Council Member Luskin? Yes. Council Member Einstein? Yes. Council Member Bernstein? Motion passes.

Okay, motion passes. Just make a note, Councilman Bernstein stepped out a second. Item number M, Quasi-Arduous Resolution, there are none. Major Project Update, item number N, Town manager you want to give us project update?

Yeah, so let me just start off by responding to a question on zoom Good afternoon. Could you please explain how the construction of the tennis courts was coordinated alongside the children's park currently being built? Additionally, when will the courts be open? Well, the tennis courts are currently still open So the question may be, when are we going to close them? So we have been able to create a small walkway that allow you to still access the tennis court while we start the demolition of the current tot lot area as we begin to deliver the Civic Center complex master plan. We've awarded, and with your action tonight, we will have awarded everything that we need for the site minus landscaping. And so should the council approve the items that are on tonight's agenda, you will have the two tot lots, the playground, no, sorry, two tot lots, all of the recreational courts, all of the lighting, the dog park areas, the water feature for the kids, and a couple other surprises that we're doing throughout the park area. At your June meeting, I'm hoping to bring to you the landscaping. And that's the end of this project here. I will tell you that right now what's holding us up is what I announced previously. And more importantly, we're still having issues getting our county permit for fire suppression. And unlike this building, where we were able to just hedge forward and get an after-the-fact permit, because that does have occupancies to the general public on any given day, we're not willing to take those liberties. And so we're waiting for fire to give us the permits. I will tell you that they have already done all of the AV installs. They've done all the framing. Today, the young lady that we hired for the toddler room came in and did a walkthrough. coordinate that all of our furniture has been ordered or is in the process of being ordered if you're excited to learn what the color palette and the Material for the building that has been selected by the council in the back of the room on the east wall that entire Set of materials on the floor is your final carpet terrazzo bathroom tile furniture swaths, gym flooring, and partition wall closure. That's all on the floor back there. And we'll coordinate those activities. Our goal is to open the Wellness Center by the December date. That's our target date is December. It seems like we're going to be able to meet that date. Every contract that we award adds more time to the schedule, but I think that we feel pretty confident. What will happen next? And that conversation is starting today with you. So over the next couple of months, the Wellness Center Advisory Board will be asked to continue to talk about rules, regulation, and programming. I have an obligation to present to you a budget in August. I'm required by your ordinance to give you a budget 30 days before the first meeting. So by August 1st, I have to present to you a budget. I have taken the liberty and provided what I consider a very preliminary budget to operate the Wellness Center. This is important for our residents to understand. There is a cost to operate the Wellness Center. And there's what we want. And what should we pay? And so this budget assumes that there is one staff member in the Wellness Center at all time that will greet, wipe down equipment, and say hello to you, and that we will provide three classes a week of some kind of class. at a minimal cost of $500 that we could pray that we find an instructor that will teach a class for $500 because trainers are asking for 150 per person to train. Right. So with those cross my fingers, let's hope we find someone to operate that wellness center on a very conservative basis. We're looking at $986,000 a year, $1 million to operate the wellness center with one staff member and three classes per week. Okay.

I'm sorry, one million to operate it from a class perspective? No, all costs. All costs.

Electric, insurance, coffee. And so what I'd like the council, we're not gonna do it tonight, but what I'd like the council to do is look at what we're presenting, tell me what you want or what we don't want, the same with the advisory committee, because these are some rough assumptions, But I've got to present numbers to you by August, right? Alex. Yes, sir.

I have a correction. Yeah. I did a little research. Instructor does not get $500 a class for instructing Pilates class or anything else. Not even close to that.

We've made some assumptions. We have trainers coming in tomorrow. They're like $200 a client.

They get half that if that. If that.

If that.

I would have thought like $152.

Yeah, they do. But I just want to tell you, Alex got 500, and it's wrong.

So let's talk about that. That's $78,000, right? So $78,000 for a million, does that really make a difference?

Yeah, it does. It does make a big difference.

But that's for, all right. So we've got to figure out what that number is. And if you find an instructor that charges that, send them our way, right? Because typically they charge per client, right? But we're going to need to have those dialogues. I will tell you that the yoga instructor at the Beach Pavilion charges our residents there per person who attends the beach yoga. That's where we got the numbers from.

But whether it be LA Fitness or Anatomy, whatever, those instructors are independent contractors. They come in. and they get, I think Einstein, Councilman Einstein's right, I think they get like 150 a class. Not even close to 500.

I'll budget that. That's great. Again, these numbers came, we went to the yoga instructor that does the beach yoga. So you guys know on Saturdays we have beach yoga. We said, what are you charging? She's like, this is what I charge per person. So I made an assumption, okay, if I have 10 guests times that rate, that gave me the 500. I was a spinning instructor. I used to get $50 a class. That was when you were, what, 10?

How many decades ago was that?

10. But let's take the programming number out, right? There are still costs, right? So what I'd like for you to do by the June meeting, right, is let's talk about what it's gonna cost to fund the building and what activities you wanna see. We may not want three different types of, we may not want yoga, pilates, and a dance class, right? We may want jujitsu, self-defense, and something else. Those type of activities, the advisory committee should give us a list of what we want. But we do need to budget a number for what I call programming. So that number, we could reduce it. Let's say we're only going to do $100,000 for classes. You tell us the number, we can work backwards on that. But know that the other costs are kind of like what we're proposing. We're proposing to have a coffee machine.

Well, the fixed costs, talk about the fixed costs, the electric, the water, the wipes, the internet and everything, that's like $250,000. $253,000. Right. So we have to decide... That's in there.

That's in there.

So the fixed costs, quote, fixed costs are $250,000. The variable costs are like the town manager saying, what do we want for programming?

Correct.

Okay. Are we going to have one class a day, two class a day, three class a day? And as a town manager is indicating, it gets expensive, whether it be $150,000. or 300 a class, so we have to be cognizant of that. So I think we all need to consider, think about it. And the good news is we can change it. In the beginning, we may offer two classes a day, and that might be sufficient. Or it may not be sufficient, but we have to be cognizant of our expenses. So I think everyone needs to look at this. And the same thing with what we need to think about is staffing. The town manager and I have had numerous conversations. We need at least one person upstairs to check everyone in and watch the equipment and probably a janitor person or a cleaning person upstairs and downstairs walking around wiping. There'll be enough to do for that janitor person. I think that's sufficient to people in the Wellness Center because we're going to have an automated A check in system where you can access it by your phone and the rules we haven't set yet. That's for all of us to discuss at a later meeting. But I think that's sufficient on the staffing. So, you know, we need to look at what he's presented. Did a good job on that. And we need to consider and think about the next few weeks. What do you think's right for classing? Because, you know, it's funny in. anatomy, okay, they have like a class at seven and when we get there, class at eight and then there's like no classes to the afternoon, whatever. Yeah, morning and afternoon. Right, and that's a big gym. You know, we're a little community. Right. So, you know, we need to be careful on what we offer. And I don't think in the beginning we can always add. We'd have to offer that much. And then we could add from that.

But we have to budget first.

Agreed. Agreed. That's why I'm saying everyone look at this and the next meeting and, you know, talk to the town manager what you think. And everyone's input is important. And I know everyone works out and goes to different health clubs. And you can see what goes on there, whether it be Williams Island, anatomy, you know, equinox.

Variable when you talk about variable well expenses is that really is that part like everything else?

There have been there have been covers there have been conversations both by advisory committee members and council members about wanting to have a spotter and a trainer there at all times and to staff members and so This constant place one person in the building Monday seven days a week limited hours on the weekends

14 hours during the week, you know for charity So that staffing is there if the staff if the council says well we want to well that means we need to add the body I'm just saying because you have to take it out sick vacation And again, we'll make the rules as we go But if someone wants to bring their trainer as long as they're certified insured and we'll discuss that later I have no problem bringing train, but I don't think we need to have a training in there. I Trainer in there because I mean these expenses are adding up. That's a another million dollars to our budget Which the town manager will go over later may be shrinking due to the governor's Expectations and proposals with property taxes. So we have to be very very careful on our expenditures When you talk about the staffer

Will he have the knowledge to tell people, okay, this is how you use it?

No. He will not? That's an excellent question. He will not have that knowledge. What we budget is a $20 high school kid saying, welcome, it's a $20 an hour. Similar to a beach attendant.

Is it a high school kid? Not a high school kid. What's minimum wage?

Our minimum wage in Golden Beach is 20.

What's real minimum wage?

The Golden Beach minimum wage is I'm the employer. I have to pay what we, our minimum. Our minimum is $20 an hour in Golden Beach. That's what we pay. That is our starting minimum wage for part-time employees in the town of Golden Beach by your action.

And Walmart, what do they get by our action?

I'm not aware of that. Yes, the town council set the town's minimum wage six years ago, and we've adopted our minimum wage four different times since then. You want us to reduce our employees' minimum wage. Is that what I'm hearing? No. Well, as he just said, we should revisit that.

No, I'm just asking. I don't know what I'm asking. I asked the question, what is federal minimum wage?

I don't know. I know what I'm required to pay, which is 20.

Hey, Siri, what's the federal minimum wage?

Didn't tell me but I believe it's 1750 I could be mistaken but Ben we did pass the

In Florida, $14 per hour for most workers. For TIP workers, $10.98. On September 30th of 2026, it goes to $15 an hour with $11.98. By the way, at $20 an hour, we still don't meet the poverty level funding for a person to live in Miami-Dade County.

That is true. Okay. And then we have to balance it with how much we pay in property taxes.

Guys, we're not even getting into this yet, right? This is for the next meeting. We can talk about it at the next meeting.

All he's saying, all the town managers are saying, and it's not discussing it now, is just consider, everyone consider, put your thinking caps on, consider what we want for programming for the gym, for the wellness center. And again, we could start slowly, okay? But I could tell you right now, we can't, one second, we can't afford someone in there and then have trainers in there and pay for trainers. It's just not going to work in our budget with the proposed changes.

What we could do, Mayor, from what I'm hearing from Councilman Einstein, if you want it to be a certified staff member that can guide you and tell you how to use the equipment, we could find out what the going rate is for a qualified licensed person that can do that. I will tell you it's going to be a lot more than $20 an hour.

Well, for that it would be.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Yeah, Florida minimum wage is $15 as of September 30th. Correct. We're going to put job qualifications and expectations, but I need us to wake up in the reality that we're living in, right? So trainers today are asking for $150 a session.

They'll give you a break if you buy three classes, right?

That's anatomy. And anatomy, I think, is a little bit more than that, right? Go get it from my desk, please. because we've asked the local gyms to see what their trainers are.

But we're about to discuss all this in the next one. Why don't we circulate this information?

Just know there's a difference between a skilled and non-skilled worker.

All I'm saying, guys, is, because I want to keep going, everyone just think about what kind of program we want. That's all I'm saying. Everyone's opinion counts. Everyone's opinion matters. Same thing with the residents. And then we need to come up with the budget.

And maybe, Alex, when you put the materials for us to examine... Well, we can get better information on what we can get people.

Mr. Mayor, since tonight's agenda is light, I need to understand, well, we could just talk about a June meeting, but if there's a consensus from the council, which I'm not sure if there is, for us to change our starting rate, because we do have vacancies that we're going to be, I need to know that because your budget, I can't work with numbers that you aren't going to.

Alex, we're not going backwards. Okay. Okay, we Golden Beach is not going back just because minimum wage is $15. We said it Years ago six years ago. I mean people need to live and eat and it's I would hate to pay someone below our Rate that we've discussed. I mean Whether it be a full-time person or part-time person. I mean we have standards and I mean, if you guys disagree with me, speak. But I mean, we want to go back. Councilman Einstein, you were in that meeting when we discussed it. I forget what year it was, but we talked about.

I don't think I was, but it doesn't matter. I think it was Mendel was sitting as counsel.

It may have been. It may have been. It may have been.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I realize there are minimums that people need to live by. And you can't live on $20 an hour. In Dade County. I agree with that. You know, I don't know if $20 an hour is our beach attendance. Do they get paid benefits or do they get flat?

It depends. If you're a full-time employee, you do get benefits.

You get insurance.

You get insurance, correct. And paid vacation.

You know, so, whatever. It's all a matter of our budget.

Which we are required to provide because of the, what they call Obama Act, but it's the, you know,

Affordability, I would direct you to because we're doing the budget thing and we'll discuss in the next meeting to stick to our plan one person above at the desk and one person as a Cleaning person and then when we get closer we can look at that but for budgeting purposes Why don't we stick that but for budgeting purposes on the on the more classes your way off? Please do you have it?

Do you have someone to talk to from local gyms? Yeah, we've been working with guys from Life Fitness. I'll send you another guy who you can call about staffing and see so that you can put together something.

By the way, my intent is that we're going to issue an RFP and have a private provider take care of all of that. and they program the building for us. And so they'll provide a list of classes and schedules and like, so we're still, but again, what I'm trying to do is get some preliminary numbers, but today's purpose was to just open your eyes and say, this is gonna cost. Right. This is not a free building. There are there are fixed costs, staff and expenses. And then there's what what do you want us to do in there? And that's just to have the conversation started because it is a real conversation that eventually needs to be more focused. Mr. Mayor, let me finish my report. So as you know, that we're going to be closing the rest of the park. We don't have a fixed date for tenants when the when the fence. turns left, the tennis courts are closed. We're going to keep it open as long as we can until we can no longer have you safely pay tennis. We will be removing the pickleball courts relatively soon because we're going to be starting to put the water infrastructure in the tennis court, in the pickleball area. So pickleball will close long before tennis close. With that, Mr. Mayor, the rest of your projects have been delivered with the sidewalks, the curbs and gutters. Right now, we're going to be working on putting together an RFP to look at the strand, to redo the strand guardhouse and the beach pavilion as part of your next year's budget. So that is the project that we're looking for next year. And then, as you know, it is summer season, so we'll be doing our traditional tree pruning activities in the next couple of weeks. That's our project report.

OK, I'm going to move on out. But the one thing is this program, this thing's really bugging me. So you need to look at it, especially under team leader vacant. You have all those vacant spots. If we're going to have one person up front and one custodian, I know you've got five spots there. So you need to look at that.

Mayor, hold on. So let me, this is important. So employees can only legally work 40 hours a week, right? So you need to have enough human bodies to cover the days that people are their days off and when they're sick on vacation. So in order to operate a building seven days a week, one person 14 hours a day a week, it's five bodies that are needed. just for staffing. So if your five days are over because you're opening the building from, let's say, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Right. So how many hours is that and how many how many hours are allowed to work? So that's that is that is your minimum number of human bodies that you need if you want a person in the building while the building is open.

That's 90 hours out, 90 hour.

That's the staffing that's required. OK.

I mean, we got I think you got to take a look at that. Yeah, let's review it. A good hard look at those numbers to support this building.

By the way, this building costs us about, correct me if I'm mistaken, 600,000 a year.

But by the way, one of the things that we are looking in order to do this is decreasing the number of beach attendants at the beach.

Moving those dollars to this building, but that doesn't solve the problem because beach attendant beach people want service So you're cutting off your nose despite yeah, that doesn't work Alex just real quick in terms of it sounds like 90 90 working hours a Week, you need to fill is that correct?

We need to fill five times 14 So we need to fill the building being staffed.

Where's the calculator? 5 times 14. It's $100. 90 hours. 90 hours.

Correct.

98 hours. So whatever you figure times 20, 25, 30, whatever the number.

Yes.

In terms of custodial, just throwing this, do you need that much?

No, that custodial staff is going to be shared with the rest of the park. Somebody has to clean the Twitter Park bathrooms. I mean, again, I'm not just throwing a body out there. These people have dual roles. We have the rest of the facilities.

Oh, it's not. Not just there?

Correct. Those are correct. Oh, okay. You have the police station bathrooms, you have the bathrooms. By the way, we currently- Is this the budget for the parks or just- This budget is for us to do a cost allocation for the services needed to maintain that building and the- The Wellness Center. Okay. And the Civic Center site.

So roughly at a minimum, what do you think it'll cost?

Well, he just gave you the number, but he's off. It's going to cost, based on his thing, it's $900,000. But if you deduct, reduce, or whatever, it's going to cost anywhere from $700,000 to $900,000. Correct, town manager?

Say that again?

To maintain that building. To maintain that building, it could cost anywhere from $700,000.

The operating cost, like the fixed cost, that's about $250,000. The insurance alone is $168,000.

And that's with a high deductible?

That's what our current plan.

Right.

Can we get a high deductible? It's what we have in this building. Same. You don't want too high of a deductible.

It's all concrete, that building.

We have the minimum insurance that we're supposed to have. I mean, we can look at it. When the building's complete, we'll review the insurance. But it's an estimate.

I know it's high. I know.

But, no, if you think about it, the fixed cost is $250,000. It's the variable cost that's going to cost the money, and it's up to us to decide what the variable cost, what we want.

I'm just, we keep talking about it. I thought this is what we're going to do on the next meeting.

I'm sorry. I serve at the pleasure of the council.

I mean, I'm just saying, like, we've already talked about this so much, and it's... And until Alex gets to some better numbers to find out, we've got like a yoga person. We've got all these numbers. I think we need a little bit more information. Agreed.

Let's keep moving.

Yeah. 1,000%. Yes. That's correct. That's correct.

They'll get that to you. I didn't mean to be short on that. No, you're right. We keep talking about it. You're 100% correct. Without real information and numbers, it's kind of...

Okay. Town Manager, are you done with the major update? Yes, please. Okay. Moving to consent agenda. Is everyone okay with what we discussed?

Yes. Just real quick, Glenn. If these were independent contractors, then the other portion of this would not apply. Correct. Right?

Correct. But the only ones that are independent contractors are the instructors, the yoga instructors, the Pilates instructors. The other guys are staff.

We're going to all have our chance to be spending an hour or two with Alex to talk about this stuff. So I just think let's get all the real numbers versus speculating.

Move to Consent Agenda. The following two items on the Consent Agenda. Item 02, Official Minutes of the April 21st, 2026, Regular Town Council Meeting. 03, Resolution Town Council Approving the Purchase of a License Plate Reader, LPR Camera. Those two items are on the Consent Agenda. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed? Moving right along, but before I do, Chief. In the coastal, Alex, in the coastal mayor's meeting I had last week, we discussed for the license plate readers to coordinate with all the cities on the coast, from Miami Beach to Surfside to Sunny Isles to Golden Beach. So, and the chief was going to call you and talk to you about that, because we're on different systems, apparently.

Yeah, I saw him the other day at the meeting, and he told me that he was going on vacation for a couple of days. So...

Town manager, I have a question for you. The LPR readers, we're buying the software, right?

We're updating the system that we have to be compliant with the neighboring cities.

So they'll be all in cahoots? Yes. Can I ask you, with the deficiency now that's been created with the ability for police officers to stop boats, is there something similar for the marine vehicles that you can take a look at and see if they're not registered or see if there's... Is there something to that effect?

So the bill that was passed was protect voters rights and privacy rights. So basically, you know, there's no due process. The boat officers used to be able to stop a boat to just do a safety inspection, and then they would find criminal charges as part of that safety inspection. And so the boater community got together and got enough legislators to say, hey, pass the bill saying stop harassing us on the waterways. And so give us more rights. And so boats, we can't just be stopped on a whim because they want to see if we have a life vest.

But if somebody is coming by and creating wake or speeding in the intercoastal in front of the homes, which have tremendous

You can still stop. Because in a no-wait zone, if you're creating a wait, then there's a charge that can be charged to you. Yeah, they can stop them.

Okay. Okay, moving on to Resolution P4, Resolution Town Council approving proposals for the purchase and installation of a comprehensive lighting system for the Civic Center Complex. Town Clerk.

A resolution of the Town Council of the Town of Golden Beach, Florida, entering into a contract with John Bell Construction Inc. for the installation of a comprehensive lighting system for the Civic Center Complex and awarding a contract to an eligible firm as approved by the mayor and town manager for the purchase of a comprehensive lighting system for the Civic Center Complex, providing for a waiver of competitive bidding procedures, providing for implementation, providing for authorization, and providing for an effective date.

Okay, I need a motion to approve. Motion to approve. I need a second. Second. Okay, Town Manager, item P4.

Yep, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Manager, sorry, Mayor and Council Members. So what we did is, as you know, as part of this complex, we put in half of the site lighting for the Civic Center complex. So we afforded the company that did this complex to give us a price, and then we had two other companies give us a price for the install number. We were able to find a company that's $51,000 cheaper than the people who did the install here. Here's where I'm asking the council to have a leap of faith There's an $80,000 allowance for the fixture purchase. We've received quotes for $75,000 to buy the fixtures. And here's where I'm having a little bit of a heartache. We currently have 23 ballers. We need to buy 33 additional ballers. The 33 additional ballers, based on the baller type that we have today, are about $1,900 a baller. So I'm trying to see if we can get a... a more cost-effective bollard to save on the bollard purchases. The problem is if I go with a different bollard, now I need to replace all the bollards because you can't have two sets of bollards in one park. We could, it just won't look nice because you have two bollards. So we're trying to figure out either A, we're going to spend the $75,000 that's in the proposal that you have and buy those bollards and call it a day. Don't stress about it. Enjoy your summer. I just like to save money where I can. But the fixed cost to install, that's the number in the change order. And we're going to make that a change order to the John Bell contract and have them do it as part of the civil work. So we just don't have the purchase yet. The ball is we'll talk about later. No, we're not talking about it later. We're done with that. We're done with that.

Does anyone have any comments? No? Council comments, public comments? Closed public, closed council. Roll call, please. Mayor Singer. Item P4, yes.

Vice Mayor Mendel. Yes. Council Member Luskin. Yes. Council Member Bernstein.

Yes.

Council Member Einstein.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Board passes. Item P5, town resolution. Council awarding a contract to Miracle of South Florida, Inc. for playground equipment and installation at Tweedle Park.

A resolution of the Town Council of the Town of Golden Beach, Florida, awarding the contract for procurement and installation of playground equipment at Tweedle Park to Miracle of South Florida Inc. for an amount not to exceed $740,000, providing for implementation, providing for authorization, and providing for an effective date.

Okay, any motion to approve? Okay, I have a motion. Any second? Second.

Mr. Mayor, Connie Brown is on the Zoom. We've gone through the presentation, it's attached. If there's a motion, I'd like the motion to read that the manager in consultation with the rest of the council is directed to find a substitute for the May poll. And with the increase that we did earlier, there's enough budget for me to change the May poll. There's been some concerns about the Maypole item in the 5 to 12 lot design. And so we're looking to remove the Maypole and find something that would fit in that same square footage. We don't want to just say take it out because then you'll have a big hole. This is important for everyone in the public to understand. Playground equipments are required to have fall zones. And so you're like, why do we need that much space? It's just a spinner. Because if a kid gets flying out, there needs to be a... So we will find a substitute item for the Maypole. And Councilman Einstein, I'm sure you noticed, and if you didn't, let me highlight it to you. We were able, and thank you, Connie, for doing this. We were able to, at the end of the monkey ball crawl on the backside... a slider so we've been able to attach the slider to that area so you would go from monkey bars and then slide down to an area it isn't the price that we put in there so the sliders included uh the maple will be the maple will be substituted out uh councilman bernstein you didn't have a chance to see the colors and i'm sorry for your loss um you weren't able to see the colors so the final color palette eric send this up there please um the final color palette was changed so that it has We've gone with a more not vibrant in your face color palette. So the color palette is a little bit softer, goes more with the surrounding environment. This project is at budget, right? So there's not a whole lot of wiggle room here. I will tell you, we are going to be taking out the current site furniture that would We're gonna go with all the furniture for the site will be what's in the Miracle proposal. So we're gonna be adding all the rest of the furniture and buying it from Miracle so that all the furniture in the park looks the same. We are still looking as part of the landscape contract, Councilman Bernstein, the purchase of two specimen trees, one for the dog park and one to replace the olive in the kids park. So that's why landscaping is not here today. So at your June meeting, we are looking to buy two big specimen trees, one for the dog park area and one for the chat to replace the olive in the top lot area. In addition to what's not here, as I showed the council during, it wasn't a workshop. Let me remind the council and the residents. It was not a workshop, so attendance did not count. It was a gathering of two or more council members for the purposes of discussing items in the sunshine. So during that meeting, I showed the council what we were going to do for water features in the park so that the kids can play with water features. And with the mayor's advice and consent, we're going to be working on bringing a shade structure for the tennis courts and toddler area that has misters. And so that's still not We're going to bring that to you probably in September because that's the last thing that goes in. But with this award, we're done Civic Center Complex. We've done everything that we can think about for the Civic Center Complex. And I think that it's a project that the residents will be very, very proud of. We've talked about financing, we've talked about how we're funding it. The last thing is our landscape plan and landscape award. I'm crossing my fingers I could have that for you by June 9th. I will tell you that we received so far three proposals and they're all in excess of $450,000 without the specimen trees. And so we're working on that. And I have I have two and a half weeks to get you that number. And but if you want to see it, it will the video will be loaded onto our website today. So there'll be a link for you to watch the video and see what it looks like. I would not like to waste. Sorry, I would I would defer going through the presentation that Connie has done since we all done it three times.

And by the way, comments, comments. I do. I just want to say the colors look great to me, and I think it's what we talked over in your office two days before the meeting. And I didn't mean to imply let's deal with the trees that I sent around. I was just suggesting that we think about that for the landscaping.

I will tell you this. It is a fair suggestion because internally, staff and I have been worried about the olive, the black olive. And although it's a mature tree, if you saw the picture today, it's kind of lanky. Is that the right word? It's kind of like... It doesn't look pretty. So we are looking to maybe replace the black olive with a specimen tree that can kind of grow a little bit faster. We still may are worried about the dog park. We are going to have a nice specimen tree for the dog park and tons of toys for the dogs to play.

And just going to this.

Should we find one for the cat?

Hey, has anyone seen I have a brown and white cat I'm missing? Anyone seen it? I'm not joking.

Just to repeat to the council what I've said to you, Alex, on a couple occasions, all I was saying is that when I look at planting these trees, it's not necessarily for the next two years or five years, but just for the long term of that park, I just think having those type of trees in there is just going to make it more majestic.

No one will thank us, but they'll be there. Any other council comments on the park?

Mr. Mayor, before we take a vote, again, with the manager spending authority with the consent of the mayor, the toddler room has been finally designed, and if you want to see what those designs are like, I have a copy of it here. We could pass it around.

We're talking about the park.

I know, but this is part of that.

Any public comments on the park? Roll call, please. Mayor Singer? Yes.

Vice Mayor Bendell? Yes. Council Member Luskin? Yes. Council Member Bernstein? Yes. Council Member Einstein? Yes. Motion passes. Just a quick note.

I wasn't kidding around. My cat is missing. So if anyone sees a brown and white cat.

Brown or orange?

Orange and white. Excuse me.

I've had cats around my house a lot.

Well, if you see the orange and white cat, let me know his name. I've got one. Peaches.

Oh, you've got one? Yeah.

He's missing.

And my dog's available. But he eats the rats.

I know they're great. I don't know what happened to him.

How long?

It's been three days.

Does he ever go over the bridge? Does he go inside, outside?

He's inside, outside. I've called him on his cell phone, he doesn't answer. But all kidding aside, if you see a cat, please. Okay, moving right along. Discussion second floor ratio requirements.

Mr. Mayor, we're going to talk about that as a general conversation. I just wanted, because I was asked a question in the audience. So as a reminder to the council and to the residents, at the last council meeting, we presented the consideration of either purchasing all of our cycling equipment or leasing it. It was not in the town's best interest given the interest rate and the lease terms to lease it because then we would have no asset at the end of the lease. So the council directed the administration to purchase all of our cardiovascular cycle type equipment. So those contracts have been awarded and they've been signed. We're not leasing. If the council wishes to replace equipment when they become outdated or obsolete, we'll have an asset that we can sell and then replace it. So that's the route. Because there was not like a lease trade program that they had. So that action was taken at the last council meeting. Mr. Mayor, I do have Ms. Helfand on and I think Mr. Klinger is on and Mr. Hollow is going to try to jump on. And this is what we're gonna start the conversation. So over the last four years, the town council has directed the staff to look at the second floor step-in requirements, the 18 to one rule that we currently have for second floors. Prior to me coming to this city, the city used to have a percentage of first floor, the second floor ratio. Before I got hired, I believe under the direction and guidance from the former building official, Mr. Danieda, you were convinced to change the rules from a percentage to a step-in requirement. And it required that the stepping in happens along the side of the house. And what you started to see, was not what you intended, right? So you intended not to have mass scenes in the front and then the back, because you didn't want to have boxed-looking houses. And so the 2 3rds, 1 3rds basically said, step in the sides. Well, no one lives in the side, right? And now you've created balconies that people can look into people's windows, right? So for 19 years, this has been a thorn in our side. And about four years ago, you said to the administration, we need to really get serious about possibly changing this. As we're seeing more and more developers come, not developers, owners coming in to want to redevelop their lots, People keep on asking us, where is the council going with this, right? And so, as you know, Mr. Klinger has presented a couple options and Chris Gratz, our zoning official, and Ms. Helfen and the members of the Evaluating Committee have been tossing this issue around. We were gonna make a presentation tonight at your request, we're not gonna make the presentation, but we need to ask this question. What do you want us to do? What are you looking for in order for us to guide our consultants and our advisory board members on what your design intent and desire is? At the same time, I've got to be able to start. We've got a couple of applications that are pending because people want to add to their second floors. They want to add more volume. They want to know what we can do. The ones that are pending are the current homes that want to add. They're saying, well, we hear you're changing. Can we add? They look beautiful. They don't impact the neighbors. I say, let them add, but I don't have the authority to do that. So we had announced through zoning in progress that we're looking at changes and we've presented two options to the board. The board is saying, Alex, what does the council want? And I think Mr. Hollow, the chairman of the board, called the mayor and basically said the same thing. And I will tell you, I'm always baffled by that question because I don't know. To me, we're seeing so many creative designers coming to our communities, some of them from even overseas. Foster's from London is doing some work here. And so to me, cardinal rule is respect our setbacks, right? The next question is, what do you want? We have a house that's going to be built very soon that looks like a sand dune, right? So layers of very flowing floors that I don't even know how they met the two-thirds, one-third, because they have pods. But the question is, in order for Steve and I to draft some policy, we need guidance. And that's what I'm asking tonight.

Can I ask you a quick question? Why refresh my memory? Because it was a long time ago. Steve, you know the answer. I don't know. Why did we go away from the ratio bottom floor, top floor? Why did we change it to begin with?

Because it's horrible. Well, my recollection is that because you were trying to get some elevation to the sides of the buildings as opposed to just a ratio. You were trying to deal with what was ending up to be very tall blank wall. That's my recollection.

But if you do a ratio, and correct me, if you do a ratio, you're not getting that because you can't build, you can't have the same square footage on the bottom floor. It's the top floor.

Wait, wait, wait. You could have done it in the front.

You could have put it in the front.

Wait, wait, wait. In addition to that, as the building director is here, this is the town manager. At the time, she was the building director. So as your modern design started to come in, you were penalized for the pitch roof. You couldn't get the height, right? Because we measure from the top of the tip. And so the council started, and that's how you had those, you know how a lot of our houses have those slanted roofs on the side? Like 180 go to speak out speak up you think like 180 going to be striving the like I should ask you and so there was Good, please.

So that's how it happened. It was because of the modern Structures coming in and they were being penalized because of the pitch pitch roof so instead of Just modifying it.

So that's why all the new houses have flat rooms Now you don't have to maximize your square footage. I And your height.

And your height. And your height. Because before you used to have a percentage of the second floor. It used to be 60, 65, and 70. And now you're 92 to 95% on the second floor filled in. Restate that again?

You're what percent?

You can build 92% on your second floor with the current code. Where before you could only build 60, 65, or 70 depending on the size of your lot.

I remember there was something that we talked about that the 60 we were trying to prevent kind of block houses like in a square and we were realizing that even with the 70 30 you can or 65 or whatever it was you could put you could load it front load it so that it was kind of heavy up front and I thought that's might have been where the code also said you had to have movement on the second floor you couldn't you couldn't put it all to the front

So I know there's three recommendations from the building regulatory board, correct?

They're considering three things. They're asking for what direction do you want us to start looking at?

So let me say this because Coral Gables had the most rigorous, I think, zoning requirements, didn't they?

Well, they have they have strict zoning requirements, but they also have what you don't have which is a architectural review board and committee.

Okay, so When we did our plan, this guy was adopting some Val Harbor ideas when we came in the last time, which didn't make any sense either. Because, you know, for example, I was in a 75-foot lot. And when I built, there was this theory that if there was anything in terms of high space in your house, And even though you did not build in that high space, if you were capable of drawing a plane and later on making a floor through that, they thought that they would architecturally not have a box type of house looking thing. But it didn't solve the problem. Because in the front, you could have the box, and in the back, you could make an angled roof to say that the plane did not reach that.

Yeah, but I'm not sure they were doing it for that reason. I think they were doing it there because they wanted the volume of these houses not to be as large. And what they were saying is if, you know, once you go up to a certain height, you got to count that space as floor area. And so they had a different issue.

Typically, the setbacks are the primary thing that we need to look at in a town. The town has no coordination. We have Mediterranean, we have modern, we have old Mediterranean.

Well, that's what you want. You don't want every house to look the same.

Well, if you're in Connecticut and you're in Greenwich, these houses look somewhat alike. They're Stepford houses.

Right, we don't want to be Stepford.

Okay, so you don't want it there, but here they wanted to architecturally say that they'd be... Different, but we do have a hodgepodge of different structures.

I honestly have to say, every new house that lately has been built has been, to me, aesthetically appealing. I don't know what they're using, but if you go on the beach and even on Golden Beach Drive, all the new homes, there's not one home that I would say...

They're all beautiful. I mean, no one's going to build a $25, $30 million house and make it look ugly, right?

But I have a question. If all the homes that are being built now are okay... that we like. I mean, the house over there is beautiful. You go around Golden Beach Drive, there's no issues. Why change it if it's not broken?

Why don't we let Ms. Helfen, who's from the former board member who has more expertise than I on this and why this conversation started. Let's hear from her since we invited her tonight to talk to us.

Hi, everybody. Good night. Thank you so much for letting me.

We can't hear her.

I can't hear her. You can hear me.

One second. It's not your fault. It's our fault.

Can you hear me now? Yes. OK. Hi. Good evening. Thank you, everybody, for inviting me and to give my two cents. So the issue with the current regulation, in my point of view, is two. One, the intent is great, which is basically is let's help our neighbors on both sides actually have something architecturally pleasing so that way you don't have like a two-story wall going all the way across the entire house, right? Which makes total sense. The issue is that the way that it's written basically leads to a very limited ability for the architect to do something nice on the sides of the house ironically you want something nice for the neighbor but the way that it's written so basically is for every foot you go above 18 feet you have to set back a foot so basically if your house let's say is 25 feet high you have to along two-thirds of the length of each side you have to set back a foot on one-third which is let's call it a bonus or let's call it whatever you want to call it, one third can go all the way up to the setback. So what you end up having is like curved rectangles inside, like towards the inside of the structure. And that's why you see there's certain houses that suddenly go up and suddenly they have like a weird pitch roof because they're going above those 18 feet. So it is very limiting. That's one. And the other is that it, The way that the code is written, it benefits big houses. And I'll tell you why, basically, because it's measured from the length of the first floor. So let's say a house is 90 feet long, okay? So then on 60 feet, you have to set back, but you still have that full length. So you end up having only, let's say, 30 feet that can go all the way up to the setback. Now, let's say you have a house that is 60 feet long as opposed to 90. You can only go 20 feet to the setback, which it doesn't make sense because your neighbor is benefiting way much more because your house is much shorter. So you want to be able to open vistas, open the space for your neighbor, right? So For me, that's the issue that one is very limiting architecturally and two, because again, the houses look beautiful and I agree with the major, they're beautiful, but you see mainly the front and the back. When you see the sides of the houses, they're actually very stale. They're not nice. They, you know, we do, and I'm being, you know, my projects as well, because it's really hard. You can do, if you decide to do a curve, there's the zoning director would go crazy. He wouldn't even know how to apply the code. Because again, it's, you would have to set back way over what's required to actually be able to achieve the curve. So, I actually created a video for you guys explaining because I do agree that setting back and making the second floor smaller than the first floor, it's actually a nice intent of the code because again, it actually helps give scale, it helps the neighbor, it helps everybody. But we have to have more flexibility on how to do it because if not, we keep on having this very square boxes. So that's one thing. And then I know we're not talking about this, but you mentioned it. So I just want to point it out about the way that the height is measured and that it does benefit flat roofs. Yes. And that's something that I think it should be a secondary conversation because you want to be able to incentivize that architects also do pitch roofs and that way you would also have more variety of architecture, not only the modern houses with the flat roofs, but also a little bit more Mediterranean or, you know, tropical modern with the Balinese flair or something like that. But the way that the code is written right now, it benefits flat roofs. So that's, again, I don't want to jump into that, but I just wanted to mention that. So that's the issue with the second floor regulation at the moment. So what I proposed was to do a formula, and I don't know, Alex, if you want me to explain it or if I just stop here and, you know.

Why don't you just stop there because we're just trying to get an idea of what we're looking at. Thank you. I appreciate it.

By the way, does she have a formula?

Yeah. There's a video that was sent to you. It's a little complicated, but is Jerry Hollow on? Is anyone are there any other suggestions beside?

Yes, so so the building advisory board has been contemplating a proposal by by a former board member Mr. Klinger who came up with an alternative solution and then the board had a workshop and directed staff to come up with a third option and Then there's always just going back to what the way it used to be or doing nothing and dealing with requests on a variance basis Right. So the mayor mentioned earlier that it seems like things are looking nice and so let's maybe not need to touch it. And if somebody has a unique design or a unique circumstance, then we deal with it on a variance basis. But then you're kind of just choosing who you want to give... Arbitrary and capricious. Yeah, so... And they have to pay for a variance to get there. I will tell you, as your manager, I am not comfortable... in this subject matter because to me, it's what do you like, right? And so it becomes difficult because I will tell you, you know, I think Ms. Halfon hit the nail on the head. If somebody wanted to come in here with a wavy house, right, to get some movement, you have to sacrifice a lot because you have to come in and so, I honestly, and I'm going to trust that the staff did the right reviews, but the house that's proposed for the big lot here, it's a lot of wavy movements. And so how are the setbacks being measured and how is the volume? I could tell you that at other designs that we've seen at 421, at 521, at 365, The designers are saying, look, we're going to have a canopy and then create smaller boxes underneath that canopy to not deal with this issue because we want to be able to build out what we can. And that seems to work. Mayor, I will tell you this. Ms. Helfand is correct. And as it relates to the penalty, The reason people want the flat roofs, and the flat roofs don't necessarily bother me, although you create that warehouse-y type feel. You could dress that up with a lot of other materials. But the reason you go to a flat roof, because you want to get to 30, right? You want to have as much volume in your house. When you have a pitched roof, we measure from the top of the pitch, right? And so what we could do to encourage those who want pitched roofs is change where we measure that pitch from, right? So say that we measure the pitch from the center of the truss or even at the lower part of the truss or divide the truss into two or something because you are penalized if you want a pitched roof because we measure from where that point is. And so you lose all that volume.

Houses would be over the 30, it would hit over the 30 feet, correct?

Well, the main masonry may not be, so the block may not be, but then you have the pitch wall, correct. Yes, sir.

Can I say something regarding that? Sure. So basically what happens is that, remember that it's all about perspective, right? And typically a lot of the cities, what they do is that they measure it from the, when you have this pitch roof, they measure it from the height, the half of it, half of it. And the reason is because it starts stepping back so much then you don't even see it but it does actually help the volume seems much smaller because on the edges it's actually already setting back much more so even though let's say a small portion of the pitch roof is going to go over the 30 feet you don't even see it because you have to be like on the other block to be able to see that point but it doesn't bother you in the mass which also like for example and i and i Actually, I read with Michael Klinger his proposal about the second floor. The reason why I don't think it makes sense the way that it's written is because it's assuming that all of the houses are going to 30 feet, which is not the case. And you don't want to incentivize houses to go to 30 feet necessarily. What happens is that with the current code, since you have to set back a foot for every foot you go above 18 feet, if you decide to go to 30 feet, you have to set back 12 feet, which is a lot. So the majority of the houses actually don't end up going to 30 feet. They go to 24, 25. So I think that makes sense. And the way that it was written in his proposal, it's assuming that everybody goes all the way up to the 30 feet, which it's not the case. And then you're penalizing houses that don't go to 30 feet because they have to set back the same amount as houses that go all the way up to 30 feet, which doesn't make sense. And it doesn't, it doesn't, it's not in agreement with the current code. The current code actually does take into consideration that the higher the house you have to set back more because it has a higher impact on the neighbor and on the street. So that's, that's, So what, you know, in the proposal that was made basically is taking all this into consideration is saying, okay, there's a certain square footage that you're setting back already with the current code. Let's maintain that because you don't want to actually request more or request less. Let's maintain that. But let's give the flexibility on how the architect wants to use it, keeping in mind that you need to benefit your neighbors on both sides. So that's the, you know, Stephanie, quick question.

You design a lot of houses or do you design any, have you designed in the last three years, any house that didn't have a flat roof?

Yeah, of course. Not here though. Not, not here, but yes.

People are building houses that aren't flat roof. Yep.

Yeah. And more and more, but here they're not doing it. Right. It's penalizing them. So instead of having, let's say, 10 feet clear on the second floor, you end up having eight and a half or nine because you have to bring the house much lower. So I think it's a shame because you're pushing people away from that option. So Ball Harbor, Bay Harbor, a lot of neighborhoods actually measure to half of the... Trust. Of the trust, exactly. So that way... it's actually comparable. Because remember, it's about volume, right? So whatever you see from the street, it's a massing. So if you start stepping back with a pitch roof, then the mass seems much lighter and much... So yes, I would say, you know, specifically in Al Harbor.

I mean, the typical person that comes to Golden Beach and buys and builds a new... They're building their dream house. You know, and on the ocean, forget about it. You're $30, $40, $50 million. GARY GENSLER- A dream spec house. Yeah. Well, but like most people have come here. I built my house. Ken built his house. The number of people, unless it's a resale, the stuff that is going up. It's a case by case almost.

I will tell you, it feels to me, and you guys know better than I, but it feels to me like what we're seeing, the people who are buying today are going to be end users. Are what? End users. They're going to be living in it. I mean, those big sales that we're seeing, I don't think that's a spec. I mean, how can you flip that purchase?

They are. But for the right price, every house is a spec house.

But even if it's a spec, people are doing them spectacularly. So who cares if it's a spec or if it's an end user? The houses are gorgeous.

Mayor, why don't we do this? So we will continue with zoning in progress. task this back to the BRAB, have them have a couple of workshops over the summer, because they don't recess, unlike the council.

And see if they can come to a consensus.

Yeah, finally. And put it back on them. And then staff will administratively deal with the ones, the additions that we have on pause, through administrative review, through zoning and progress. And so long as we feel...

The ones on hold, I think, should stick to the existing building code.

Correct? Some of them are existing houses that want to do additions.

Oh, okay.

And so they're at that max. So then they need a variance? We could do it through a variance, but you don't need to get until September. That's a four-month wait. Okay. So you're going to review them? I mean, what we have pending are small added areas, and I don't think that they impact. They're already built out to the front and the sides. There's a matter of enclosing a side. Okay.

If it doesn't affect the neighbor and the setbacks, you can review them. I don't think the council will have a problem with that. Or we have to bring them back. If they do, I would stick to the original building code. All right.

Well, we have a June meeting. Let me strategize with Steve and Jerry and Dario and Linda and see if I can come up with some creative language For us to talk at Stephanie.

Thank you very much for helping us out.

I appreciate it I will remind the council to two quick things if we can get the council has come off the days for a quick picture a better picture So we can get for the boating safety week. That'd be great And I'd like to remind the council that we are meeting in June on June 9th It's a light agenda, but let's just talk we'll talk out some of these Uncomfortable conversations that we had today. We'll flush them out a little bit more.

Okay, so With that, I'll make a motion to adjourn. All in favor, say aye. Aye.