Regular City Commission Meeting - Regular Meeting

All right. Thank you all so much. We are resuming our meeting. Our city commission meeting. It is 5:00, a little bit past then, and we have citizen comments remaining on the agenda. Thank you for everyone who has come to speak. Pat is our city clerk and she has a speaker card. You can fill a card out. And are we there still or hasn't started? I don't want you to forget about me, Commissioner. Claire? Yes? Is that you? All right? Well, we can hear you. And if you can hear us, then you can take the comments in as well. All right. As soon as the clerk hands me the comments, I'll go ahead and invite you all up. Arlene. All right. Thank you. Yes. Hi. We're here. Go ahead. All right. Myra Weaver, please come on up. Followed by Yolanda Jean. Hi, I'm Myra Weaver, a very long time resident of Hollywood. If I were to say to you that there is a dangerous situation that would be hazardous to our children, I said that now you would say. I didn't know about that. If I told you that I've made it an issue. Contacted people, gone to offices, then you'd have to say, well, I didn't care about that because I'm trying very hard to make sure something is done about a situation prior to something that could impact us in a very serious way. And what I'm referring to as so many people do is talking about a traffic situation, particularly the traffic circle on Taft and 40th, which is where I live. I'm the second house. I it's a it's right near the school. It's the crosswalk for the

school. That circle is the most traveled egress exit off of that circle because it goes to Sheridan. Constant, constant. There are always people crossing. There are always dogs and and wheelchairs. And let me show you a picture. I took this, and the reason I could take this is because the car. Oh, sorry. And if anybody wants to see it back there, this shows this shows they're walking home from school. This is the circle. The car. I heard the car screeching because coming off of that circle, the traffic comes off of it insanely. It's like they're shot out of a slingshot. I care very much for children. They're a priority. I run the state of Florida's largest children's arts organization, and it's based right here in in Hollywood. 700 kids. And I used to teach fifth grade. So I see these these school children and others who are trying to get across that crosswalk and the cars coming off of the circle, no matter where they got on, the minute they get to that corner, they're mad. We made them make a circle. They're not happy about that. So what do they do? They stomp on the gas. I'm surprised their foot doesn't go right through the floorboard, because they are just anxious to get away from that circle. And when they do that, there are usually people there. I can't say every car does that. Some are quite polite, but the majority of the cars, once they reach that exit off of the circle, they're they're insane. And you can hear them. You can see them. Something is going to happen. I just I just know it. And I've been talking about

this for a number of years. I visited one of the commissioners a couple of years ago and we discussed, oh, thank you, Miss Weaver. Okay. You know, if your request is for us to take a look at the at the signage and try to calm people down around that circle, then that's what the city manager and team just heard. And we'll go ahead and do that. I live nearby also, and so I'm familiar with the circle. And thank you for bringing it to our attention okay. Thank you. Let's go with Yolanda Jean, followed by Yvonne. She'll tell me Ledesma. Okay. Yolanda. Jean, hi. Hi. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Yolanda and I live in the city of Hollywood. So last week when I went online to pay my mother's water bill, I seen an excessive $2,500 additional to her bill. After I called the city of Hollywood, they told me that it was because of 15 months of excessive of estimated billing. They've never informed us. I've never got any notice, never any intent. Nothing has been shown that the bill was estimated. And now that when I spoke to Keisha, the supervisor downstairs, she's informed me she gave me until today to pay. And I've informed her. My mother is an elderly disabled woman who's on a fixed income who don't have the funds at this moment. My question is, what's the protocol behind when the meter is not being read? That's not being done for 15 consecutive months of allowing this to lapse. It's a problem coming behind the elderly that who doesn't have the income to come with this. Now the water might get shut off. You never know what's going to happen in the city of Hollywood. Creating a. To me, my thing is creating a grant to help these people that are having these issues that was never informed. So they can subsidize this because then because honestly, the City of Hollywood utilities, they neglected to inform us as the

residents of City of Hollywood, we love Hollywood. We've been here for 17 years. We're not going anywhere. But we love this. But we also need to know what are the protocols behind maintaining the meters and allowing us time to catch up. I understand a week, but allowing 15 consecutive months. To me that's neglect. I think you make a very good point, and I agree with you and the city manager and the utilities department should revise that protocol, because giving someone a 15 month estimated bill in one month is, you know, not something that can just suddenly be sprung up without explanation and without. And the whole question of estimating for 15 months, I agree with you is just a problem in itself. So hopefully the city manager hearing this will report to us what they're going to do differently. And in your case as well. Thank you. Thank you. Yvonne Ledesma followed by Kat Uddin. Hi. Thank you. My name is Yvonne Ledesma and I'm a resident at Parkview. I'm here tonight to speak about the Washington Park Community Center and the opportunity it represents for our neighborhood. When I first moved to Parkview a little over two years ago, I was surprised to see that our neighborhood community center offered no classes or sports for kids. I'm surprised because having lived in Miami Shores and Sunny Isles, they have community centers that are hubs for activities and events. Washington Park has the space and potential to be a vibrant community hub, but right now it's underutilized and does not fully serve the families who live nearby. With thoughtful investment, the center could better support children, parents and residents of all ages. Our community is asking for expanded programing, more frequent community events, and safer, more engaging playgrounds on the property, which right now there is a playground with shade and equipment for children of all ages. In January, we conducted a small survey with the moms of

Parkview WhatsApp Group and we all. There was a strong interest in adult Pilates classes and for children programing like dance and gymnastics, there is a clear demand for local accessible enrichment opportunities. Additionally, the large field next to Community Center is currently offering no organized sports. Many children in our neighborhood would love to be able to play soccer or baseball close to home, and not have to drive clear across town to access these activities. Also, there are no sports for girls in all of Hollywood. My daughter, who's sitting here ten years old, you know, I have to take her to other communities in order for her to have access to activities. I would love to be able to take her to classes right here in my neighborhood, and investing in Washington Park would make a difference for families like mine, and would help ensure the space is truly serves the residents. And that was the reason it was built. I understand that there are some barriers due to after school programing. That being said, other community centers and other cities actually have found creative ways to do both offer activities and also have this after school programing. In Aventura, for example, you can drop off and pick up your kids outside of the community center, so no adults enter. So finally, I wanted to add how important it is to offer activities for kids of all ages, board children, make trouble for the police and the neighbors, and being able to offer events and activities can be a part of also benefiting public safety. And in addition to enriching our community. So thank you so much for your attention. And my request is that during the budgeting process, we allocate some more resources to this this side of Hollywood and this community center. Thank you. Thank you.

Yvonne. Commissioner Hernandez, did you want to speak? Thank you mayor. I received an email that you sent as well. And by the way, there are some organized sports in that in Washington Park. I believe it's football. No. Not anymore. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. I'll correct you. There's no more. No longer. It's been that way. In about six months, they might have dissipated. Okay. And I agree with some of the statements that you've made regarding being underutilized. So that's something the Parks and RECs or the city manager will probably be able to look into. I don't know if we can offer everything that you're looking for, but there's definitely the ability to utilize the park. Thank you, I appreciate it. And just just to reiterate, that program stopped a few months ago, about six months ago, and nothing has been put in place. And the program stopped because there was a feud among the leagues, not because we don't want to provide for the park. So. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Great. Thank you. Yvonne. Yvonne. Yvonne. Commissioner collier. Oh, hi. You know, I'm not used to this. I'm used to just walking away after public comment. I love this that we can interchange. Yes. Hi, Yvonne. Thank you for bringing that forward. It's. Where is it coming from? Okay. Is this Tracy? Hi, Tracy. Hi, Yvonne. You neglected to let them know your past life, but thank you for bringing it forward. Thank you for speaking up. And thank you for being here. It's great to see you again after all these years. I know I wish you were here in person. I would like to see you tell us your past life now. I was a councilwoman in Miami Shores. Okay, great. For years. Yeah. All right. Great. Thank you, thank you. Is that it? Anything else? Commissioner Quintana, I know has been working on this to go ahead. Commissioner Quintana, thank you. So I just have to say how grateful I am to have someone like you in our district, because, as you know, I've been talking about this for quite some time. But to hear the voice of our residents is really what makes the difference. And to bring my daughter, I mean, adorable, I

know, it's so Bella. Isabella is a rising young leader in our city, I'm sure, just like her mom. Yeah, we have so many great kids out there, they really would be able to use some activities. So thank you, thank you, thank you so much. All right, Ricky, we've been talking about activities. So there's another set of ideas cat followed by Aaron Fish. And then the final speaker will be Aaron Marvasti. All right. Hello. I think I've said it before, but I think it bears repeating that it's very difficult for working folks to get to citizen comments. If they want to speak in person before 530. I would strongly recommend moving citizen comments to at least 530 and beyond. I just wanted to say that I, I participated in Dine Out Hollywood, I think it was in November and it was a really great idea. My husband and I used it as an opportunity to try a new restaurant, as well as go to one we haven't been to in a while. I heard some suggestions for possibly improving it if the city wanted to do it again. I know that was the first time that you did it. Some suggestions were better. Promotion and outreach I did speak with one business owner who said that he didn't have a single person come to his restaurant for Dine Out Hollywood, and I asked him if anybody from the city had gone for some type of post-event analysis. You know, how many people did you get? What could we do to improve it? So I think maybe that would be important just to say, you know, just take some data with the business owners. Like how many people did you have that that knew about the program that came to do it, so that if we were going to do it again, we could improve upon it and just how we can better support those business owners. As far as downtown Hollywood, I know there was some requests for feedback for downtown Hollywood. I'm sure you've heard a lot of these before, but some of residents were saying, you know, more events that bring residents downtown, live music and also family friendly activities where people feel that they can bring their kids

downtown. Obviously better marketing. I've heard influencers and just things to increase foot traffic. So, you know, a lot of the reasons why people go to places like Dana Point is not only the free parking, but also because you can safely have your kids run around there. There are shops to go to. We don't have a whole lot of shops downtown, so unless you're going to a specific coffee shop or bar or restaurant, you probably aren't going to kind of wander in there and look at storefronts because there aren't really a whole lot of stores. So just diversifying the businesses. And then just one last point. I know you hear from me a lot on on the Beach and appropriate development, but right now, you know, our city is in a lawsuit with a developer wanting to build a live local project at the Broadwalk. And at the same time, you know, we're asking the city, I mean, the county, to do a land use amendment to allow a 27 story or taller tower at that site. The concern from residents is that if that lawsuit was to be won and that developer is allowed to use a special exception, Margaritaville, as the height that if we then have a 27 story tower as a special exception, then that will become the standard on the beach. So basically we would be allowing 27 stories all down the beach. So just something to keep in mind with that land use amendment. Thank you. Thank you Aaron Fish followed. Aaron Fish followed by Aaron Marvasti. Hi. Good good afternoon. I work with echo pipelining and we do trenchless pipelining services in different municipalities in Florida as well as in it could be closer to the mic as well as in the city of Hollywood. And one thing just to point to at least notify the city that we're going around and we're we're assisting people in

replacing their restoring their sewer line. And we notify we see that there's companies that are going around and providing coding and not pulling permits. And it's it's hard for legit companies that are doing good work to compete with companies like that. So I think if the city could keep keep a lookout for companies that are not pulling permits and are not performing the work that they're supposed to perform under code and under the city ordinance, that was his companies that really want to help the residents in restoring their pipes. It's a it's a great service for city. The city as well could use that service. And we see people that are performing it in really harming the residents. Thank you. I know that our development services director is here and she's listening. Thank you. And if you have an opportunity to report any particular properties where there's evidence of this, then please share it with us. Thank you. Erin Marvasti. Good afternoon, mayor. Vice mayor, I know you're listening. Commissioners and the city staff, first and foremost, I wanted to thank the city and public Works. We just did a great project on 74th and Charleston. It was great to see our residents out there over the weekend, mothers pushing their strollers. So on behalf of the mothers, the residents, I wanted to thank you because that's that was a great project that we got done. There are a couple bullet points that I wanted to bring up. We do have our sidewalks between 72nd, I'm sorry, our streets between 72nd. Sheridan and Tom's on the west side. It belongs to the city of Pembroke Pines and on the east side is us. So maybe we can make somehow compromise with the two cities together. We have repaired the street quite a few times, but it really

needs to be repaved, so I just wanted to bring that up. And the second bullet point that I have is that there's been illegal dumping in our Driftwood Park. It was resolved a few years ago. We did plant some trees, but it's starting to happen again. And I thought maybe we can. Just a suggestion. Maybe we could put a camera that could help deter whoever is doing this and maybe possibly also put like a monetary fine just to possibly stop it because something, you know, it's continuously happening. And lastly, our wonderful situation with our sewer. I know this has been an ongoing thing and it is a hefty price tag. So this is for one of our residents, Chris, who has reached out to me along with other residents. If it's possible that we can just. And I know Commissioner Biederman and you guys have been working strong on this, but if we can just keep district five and mines. To try to put, you know, district five as a priority, and that's pretty much it. So I thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Erin. Commissioner, did you want to speak? Thank you mayor, not necessarily regarding this, but the comment that was made earlier for the lady who's been estimated for 15 months on the water bill, we actually paid extra for the Neptune meters in order to avoid something like this. And I think that the least we can do, just as a rule of thumb, if it took 15 months of estimating, maybe we give them 15 months of for them to be able to pay their because it's a gradual in order to do that. But I've had a situation with a lady on my district where the water actually underground pipe broke and she wound up with a $2,000 water bill. This was supposed to be something that the Neptune meters were supposed to

avoid. I spoke with the vendor regarding something like this and they haven't reached out to her, but they're working on that. And he tells me that there's not much we can do because the water was used. We promised our residents that this would be avoided, and now they're coming up with things that are not and this is not the norm. So there's got to be a way for us to be able, whether we bring it to the commission, whether we bring it to staff, to be able to help the residents when they fall into something like this. And I know you want to say something, George, so go ahead. No, it's fine. Just now, minutes ago, talking with Chris, we're already reworking the ordinance and the procedure. Bring that back to you soon. And anyone who has had service interrupted because of the the estimation will not have their water cut off. So we're already putting that in place. And not just the the young lady that was here this evening. Thank you. And what I heard from her, I don't think she was trying not to pay. She was trying to come up with something because her mom is on a fixed income. So if we estimated it for 15 months, maybe we ought to give her 15 months to pay so that she can pay gradually as well. My concern is for other people that have underground issues, and they've actually paid a plumber and fixed it as soon as they were aware of it, but by the time they're aware of it, the safe valves that we put in place, no pun intended, with a meter, are not working. And I think we promised them that there would be notified if something like this happened. That's the reason why we bought and paid for the Neptune meters. Understood. And I don't know how the commission feels about something like that. I think we all probably agree. Let's let's go to Commissioner Biederman. So you make you make a valid point. About 15 months of estimating. It does say estimating on the bill. If you read the bill and I'm not you know, a lot of us just pay the bills and we don't think about reading it. But but it is there. But my concern is when we do a estimate, estimate, estimate and then we hit them with the total usage. How does that

affect the tier pricing that that might be a very valid concern and a reason why the bill might be a little bit higher than normal. Do you, Vin, do you have an answer on a spot or is that something you have to come back with us on? Okay. And by the way, our staff is very professional. But of course, it's very as a matter of fact, this is what it is, is the only thing we can do. So if we need to bring something up to the city management or us, in order to look at this a little closer, we may be able to just to have a route to do it. That's all. Well, in addition to changing the ordinance and the procedure, which we're already doing, there's a customer service element to this too. And not only what we do, but how we do it. It's important. So we need to continue to reinforce that message to. So in addition to working out payment plans, it's it's how you deliver the message. A lot of times Commissioner Gruber then Commissioner Quintana. Yeah, I just you know, with a situation like that, I don't think anytime anybody's getting estimated bills in 15 months later, they should ever be hit with a bill that high. And if we can't get it together and get a bill, then I think we should eat the costs. I don't think any resident should have to be hit with something like that. That's my $0.02. Whenever you look at the ordinance and how it's done. Yep. Commissioner Quintana, I'm kind of having this, like, weird out of body feeling because I keep hearing the conversations I've been having over the last three days. I'm like, wait, is I my room bugged? But Google is listening. Exactly. What's that? Google? Google is listening because it's just exactly the same words I said we should. If somebody's bill is 15 months behind, we should give them 15 months to pay. If it's partly our responsibility. That person is in my district. But this is not the first time I've taken a call like this. And so and the other message that George just

said, that he and I had a conversation about, it's like it's how you tell someone that they're still going to be responsible for the bill. And we've very clearly told city leadership, all of us have that customer service is a priority. And so if someone used the water, they use the water. I hadn't thought about the point that you said Commissioner Biederman, but I understand they need to be responsible for it. But, I mean, I had an issue like this for my mother, who lives in Hialeah, and I had to come and intervene on her behalf where she had a broken pipe and she was able to get a prorated bill. She didn't have to pay the full amount. Well, we have a credit system, too. Yeah, I know, because I've had to advocate for people in Hollywood on the county side, so I know, but so I don't know that any of that was presented to to this resident. But I definitely do think that beyond just solving her problem, I think it's a really good idea for us to create a solution that's more systemic. And I assure you, we're hearing all of these different elements which we will address in what we bring back to you. Thank you. Commissioner, obviously I agree with that. But I will say when we've had issues with situations like this, anytime I've called Vince staff, it is resolved. They reach out. I mean it's a very high level of customer service. So I'm curious if the young lady that was here came here first or she's. Yeah. So. Because you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. My experience with dealing with leadership in the department has always been very responsive. But she wasn't dealing with with then she was dealing with somewhat at a lower level of customer service. Okay. Who wasn't as accommodating. Gotcha. Okay. So I you know, I would just say

then maybe it's a part of the solution is just some training of those, those frontline people that receive the phone calls would, would just go a long way. So thank you. So looking forward to seeing the ordinance change. City manager. And obviously the customer service approach needs tweaking. But with regards to the ordinance change some months ago and I don't know, a year ago, we talked about the language in the ordinance with regards to application to pool leaks. There are some exclusions there that are not fair. I think if there's a leak on the property, there should be the same credit afforded to a pool leak, the same as a household plumbing leak, same as a commercial property leak. There's not a reason why one leak should qualify for credit and the other other types of leaks. Not so on the leak part of it. There should be fairness across the board on the estimated billing. That's, you know, I think the prorated prorated monthly payment plan is probably the right way to But at some point we have to we have to not months. We shouldn't we should have a restriction on how long, how far back. You know utilities gets to back. Bill. You know there shouldn't be missing for 15 months. And then and then look at it. So and the point that Commissioner Hernandez made about the Neptune meters from what I understand these electronically read meters should be alerting. I don't know if they have the capability of alerting to a leak on property. And if that's the case, it needs to light some alert on the staff side. And then the staff should call the resident. If we can get to that level of, hey, we know our system noticed something wrong with your property and your consumption, call a plumber before it gets to 30 days and a $2,000 bill. I mean, we'd be, you know, a great customer service and city service provider if we could do that. So whether that's technologically possible or not, I don't know. Yeah. It is is already do it in Hialeah. They do it in Hialeah. We need to do it is and as a matter of fact,

we promise our residents that that was one of the advantage of that. Plus, if you were on an automatic, were you give him a credit card, they would alert you right away. And there has been instances that that has not happened and the city has to had credit those accounts because of that. So it the technology exists whether the product is actually living up to its promise or not, that's a whole different story. And that's something that this doesn't come every day. But there are some people when it does come up and they just don't know how to handle it. And most of the people that comes up with that happen to be on a fixed income, I'm certain we'll be walking through a lot of detail on on how everything works, and then we'll have that for you when we bring it back to you soon. All right. Final comment by Commissioner Behrmann. And we have talked about this before. It's a software issue that the provider isn't providing anymore. And when we ordered the last meters, I did bring it up. But it's not until the resident brings it up that we really hear. But I think that it's a software thing that we could relatively fix in house, hopefully. All right. Thank you all so much. That concludes citizens comments. And this meeting is adjourned.