Regular City Commission Meeting - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everyone. Welcome to City Hall here in the City of Hollywood. Today is Wednesday, August 26th, 2026, and we are here for a City Commission meeting, of course. Every meeting of the City Commission has important items on the agenda and important recognition, and today will be no different. In fact, today will be really exceptional in what we're recognizing today. But before we... get on with the agenda. We do always start the meeting with a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. And at times, when a member of the city commission wishes to ask for a moment of privilege to remember someone in the community or in their personal life that was lost, during since we last met as a City Commission, then we of course extend that opportunity for the community to Think of someone as we rise for the moment of silence. So at this time, I'd like to recognize Commissioner Quintana who would like to extend her remembrance of a friend Go ahead Commissioner Quintana.

Thank you very much mayor Today I'd like to take a moment for us to remember Steve Werthmann and Steve's enduring legacy is in South Florida, where he was a beloved community activist, a devoted husband, son, and friend. He was a Broward County resident from the age of two, where Steve witnessed tremendous change over his lifetime and helped bring about some of the best of it. For more than four decades, he served Broward County through his work in environmental conservation, affordable housing, mental health, and homeless services. While some people measure their lives by personal success, Steve measured his by the difference he made in the lives of others. In the late 70s, Steve co-founded Environmental Coalition of Broward County. In 1982, he became the first executive director of the Florida League of Conservation Voters. He later served as site supervisor for a specialized urban ministry's urban garden program in Broward County. And in the late 80s, he became Broward County's first outreach case manager for people experiencing homelessness and mental illness at Henderson Mental Health Center. He went on to manage the county's first transitional shelter for homeless families operated by Salvation Army. And later, he opened the Miami Rescue Mission Broward Outreach Center right here in Hollywood. He ended his formal career as chief operating officer for Hope South Florida. Above all, Steve cherished the life he shared with his beloved wife, Kathy. They met in 1991 when both worked for the Salvation Army of Broward County. Their friendship bloomed into a romance, and they married at Trinity College Chapel in Hartford, Connecticut. Together, they enjoyed a life centered on love, friendship, music, faith, family, and community. Their partnership reflected the same compassion and generosity define Steve's life I'll remember Steve always for his passion for being barefoot everywhere he went so I every time I'll barefoot I'll remember Steve thank you thank you Commissioner Quintana as well you all might have heard that the community lost a member his name was Larry Davis

Larry was an attorney that lived here in the city of Hollywood, practiced here on Harrison Street at his law office for decades, served a lot of people, again, as an attorney, began his career, as I later learned, in social work and in behavioral health when that was first really established. starting to bud here in Broward County back in the 1980s and 90s. He was very close with Bob Butterworth, the former attorney general who still lives in Hollywood and has a lot of close friends that will miss him dearly, a lot of colleagues in the professional legal world that will miss him. He was someone who was very well known in the Broward County courthouse by every bailiff, by every clerk, and was a real great person. We're all going to miss him, and it really is a great loss. So think of Steve and think of Larry.

Mayor. Also, if we would, just remember all of the lives lost in the earthquake in Venezuela and the lives lost in Colombia.

Indeed. Well, thank you all. Let's be thankful for our blessings and for the moments we've had with people that we care about. Please rise for that moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you so much. We also take an important moment to recognize our veterans, active service personnel, and their families.

So if you are a veteran of the US Armed Forces, family member thereof, active duty, please rise.

We'd like to recognize you. Thank you. All right. Let's go for roll call, Pat.

Commissioner Quintana?

Yeah.

Here. Commissioner Shuham. Here. Commissioner Hernandez. Here. Commissioner Kaleri.

Here.

Sorry, Vice Mayor Kaleri. Commissioner Gruber.

Here.

Commissioner Biederman. Here. Mayor Levy.

Here. All right, before we get started with our agenda, there is also a special recognition that I certainly feel responsible and happy to extend. Commissioner Shuham from District 1 in Hollywood was just elected to be our new District 6 South Broward County Commissioner. Thank you. She'll be with us until she's sworn in as county commissioner. I believe it's November 17th. So congratulations, Commissioner Schumann. All right, on to the consent agenda. Today, these are items 5 through 22. These are items that don't usually require individual discussion. However, if a member of the body or the public submits a comment card, we are happy to remove it for discussion later in the agenda. Pat, are there any speaker cards on consent?

Yes, item 13. Item 13.

Okay. Let me put that into the regular agenda. Any requests from the dais?

Number 16, please.

16. Anything else? Otherwise, I'll accept a motion to move items 5 through 22, minus 13 and 16.

Second.

We have a second from Commissioner Quintana. Motion from Vice Mayor Kaleri. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, those items carry unanimously. All right. 1 p.m. presentations, proclamations, and awards. I would like to begin and extend an opportunity to invite our fire chief, Jeff Levy, up. He would love to recognize the recipients of the Meritorious Service Award for the fire and beach safety and, of course, the Lifesaving Award, chief. Yes.

Mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, the manager and staff, thank you, Jeff Levy, fire chief. We're going to be presenting a few awards today, and every one of these awards we're presenting are all life-saving heroes, from a doctor and a physician who are doctors and physicians at Memorial, but also oversee the Hollywood Heroes program, who teach CPR to our residents and business owners. We're also going to be recognizing two of our fire rescue and ocean rescue personnel, one for his deployment to Venezuela for the earthquake, as part of the urban search and rescue team. And then another one, our hero ocean rescue lifeguard that was, you'll hear the story in a minute, that saved his family while on vacation in Aruba. So Chief Mosher is going to read the descriptions and recognize these wonderful individuals. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, and city staff. Today we're honoring several different employees. As Chief Levy mentioned, I'd like to first ask Dr. Besson and nurse Caitlin Iles to come up. So as they come up today, we're honored to recognize Dr. Eric Besson and registered nurse Caitlin Iles for their dedication to improving cardiac arrest survival throughout the community. Together, through their leadership of Memorial Healthcare Systems and Hollywood's HEROES program, they have helped provide hands-only CPR and AED training to more than 700 citizens and City of Hollywood employees. Their work has strengthened the chain of survival by preparing bystanders to act during critical moments before EMS arrives. Dr. Bassan has also advanced hospital-based resuscitation care by creating the Memorial Regional Hospital Resuscitation Committee and helped establish Florida's first comprehensive resuscitation center. Caitlin, as co-director of the HEROES program, has been instrumental in coordinating and expanding its lifesaving education through Hollywood. Their partnership with Hollywood Fire Rescue has helped connect community education, emergency response, and advanced hospital care into a seamless continuum. These efforts have contributed to survival rates with good neurological outcomes that exceed state and national benchmarks. Dr. Bassan and Caitlin exemplify leadership, collaboration, and service. We are proud to recognize them with the Citizen Award of Merit and sincerely thank them for their commitment to protecting the lives of those in our community. Thank you. At this time, I'd like to call Lieutenant Chris Garcia to join me at the podium. We are honored to recognize Lieutenant Chris Garcia with the Meritorious Service Award. for his extraordinary courage, selfless service, and unwavering commitment to preserving human life. Lieutenant Garcia deployed to Venezuela as a member of Florida Task Force 2 following the catastrophic earthquake. During this international urban search and rescue deployment, Lieutenant Garcia spent eight consecutive days conducting search and rescue operations in unstable and collapsed structures, assisting victims who were trapped beneath earthquake debris. Throughout the deployment, he willingly operated in an environment of extreme personal danger. He faced compromised buildings, shifting rubble, and hazardous conditions. Despite these risks, Lieutenant Garcia repeatedly placed himself in harm's way to locate, reach, and rescue survivors. His actions demonstrated exceptional bravery, professionalism, and dedication to the mission of this fire service. Working under physically demanding and emotionally taxing conditions, Lieutenant Garcia remained focused on saving lives. Every rescue required calculated risk, exceptional skill, and extraordinary courage. His willingness to perform dangerous rescue operations in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake exemplifies conduct that is clearly above and beyond the ordinary call of duty. Lieutenant Garcia's courage and unwavering devotion to protecting human life embodies the highest traditions of the fire service. For his extraordinary courage, selfless service, and dedication to saving lives, Lieutenant Chris Garcia is receiving this Meritorious Service Award. Lieutenant Garcia, on behalf of Hollywood Fire Rescue and the city of Hollywood, we thank you for your courage, your service, and your unwavering commitment to helping others in their greatest time of need. Congratulations.

Thank you.

I would next like to call Ocean Rescue Lifeguard Marcelo Lorenzo. For this award, I want to read the email that we got from his grandparents, which obviously led us to recognizing him today. On August 11, 2026, members of our family were on vacation in Aruba and decided to take a speedboat towed tubing excursion. Three members of our family, daughter, son, and granddaughter, were on one tube, while Marcelo and other family members were on a second tube alongside. The boat pilot unfortunately took a wide turn and caused the tube with our daughter, son, and granddaughter to collide at high speed with an anchored ocean-going catamaran. The entire incident was captured on video. The impact was at high speed and extremely violent and catapulted all three riders onto the catamaran. Other than Marcelo Lorenzo, there were no other first responders in the area. Marcelo saw our granddaughter face down and unconscious in the water. He also realized that his severely injured father was underneath the catamaran holding onto the netting. Without hesitation and putting himself at risk, dove into the water, rescued our granddaughter, started CPR to evacuate water in her stomach and lungs. Within minutes, he was back in the water and pulled his father to safety. Marcelo continued life support until relieved by local first responders. As a result of this catastrophic incident, our granddaughter has spinal injuries and severe head trauma and must be medevaced out by air ambulance. Marcelo's father has two broken ribs and a bruised and punctured lung. Our daughter's arm was broken in three places and needs immediate surgery. As severe as these injuries are, they would have been far worse if Marcelo was not on the scene. His actions speak volumes and reflect positively on your agency, which provided him with the necessary training and professionalism to demonstrate command presence and take the necessary actions. In the face of extreme danger and mental duress, lifeguard Marcelo Lorenzo acted with remarkable courage, quick thinking, and selflessness. His decisive actions not only safeguarded lives, but also prevented further harm to members of his family. Learning of such dedication was both humbling and inspiring, and it served as a powerful reminder of the extraordinary commitment that your agency upholds every day in the training of your personnel. Congratulations.

I'd like to extend a moment of privilege for Vice Mayor Kaleri, who would like to make a comment.

Well, first of all, that is amazing. God bless you. And I'm sure your family is just so pleased to have you representing them. And we're so pleased that you're representing the city of Hollywood with your amazingness. So congratulations again. I would also be remiss. I didn't point a point of privilege for a moment of silence for Battalion Chief Michael O'Donnell, who passed away during our summer break. And so if you can keep his family and the entire fire department in there in your prayers as well. That's all.

And it's great to see everyone here, the chiefs for fire and beach safety and rescue, to recognize Lieutenant Garcia and Lifeguard Lorenzo for both, you know, exercising their training and their instinct and for the courage that you've displayed both in the earthquake aftermath, which I'm sure wasn't easy of seeing what you saw, and then for, of course, you know, instant trauma and the instant, you know, occurrence that happened, lifeguard Lorenzo, with your family. That must have been, you know, a terrifying moment, but your instinct was I'm a lifeguard. And that's special. So congratulations.

Thank you to the doctor and Katie Lyons for both. I worked with you guys alongside of CPR training. You guys got to continue doing it because that one person you make a difference in can save a life.

I don't know if you trained, you know, lifeguard Lorenzo, but whoever did, did a good job. So if you'd like to say a few words, we're happy to hear from either of you. Maybe tell us, you know, Venezuela, we saw a lot of heartbreak and a lot of significant damage there on TV screens, but you saw it in person.

Yes, just like Chief Moser described, everything was true. The emotional damage that to me was probably the hardest part. I'm bilingual, speak Spanish as well fluently. So I was a translator for most of our team. Dealing with that, talking to those families that were just holding on to the little bit of hope that their family member was still alive, that made all the difference. I am proud to say that FEMA Task Force Team 2 did make a remarkable rescue of a gentleman, a security guard, Hernan. He was wedged three floors below the street level in a parking booth. when the earthquake happened. And it took us 53 hours of nonstop around-the-clock work tunneling through debris as well as putting ourselves in danger because every single structure there that I saw was unstable. It could have collapsed on us. It almost did a couple times. Thankfully, we were able to stabilize it and shore it up and work together as a team. There were over 40 USAR teams from around the world in Venezuela. We were all working side by side with each other. But it was a great experience. It had its highs and its lows. But overall, I am forever grateful for the opportunity that you guys were able to provide in allowing me to go and support Hollywood, the city, the departments, the people, everybody.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello. I just want to say thank you for having me here. I'm very appreciative for this award. It's an honor. And I just want to give a huge shout out to the fire rescue and ocean department for giving me the best training and allowing me to help my family. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Well, we wish a quick recovery to the members of the Lorenzo family. Wishing the best for your family members to recover safely. And thank you, Lieutenant Garcia, for representing Hollywood in the best way possible. We're proud of you guys. Proud to have you. Thank you. Before you go, I've got Commissioners Shuham and Biederman.

Go ahead, Commissioner Schell. Well, to all three, I mean, thank you all so much for the incredible work and for having Hollywood be reflected throughout the world in such an incredible way. My question, Lorenzo, it sounds like your family, in addition to the, you know, horrible incident injuries, it sounds like there's probably significant costs that have been incurred via medevacking and things like that. And I just wanted to know if there's a place that people who are listening might be able to assist your family in any way. No, everything. You have all good? All good, thank you, appreciate it. Thank you, great.

Commissioner Biederman.

Just wanted to make a shout out to our fire rescue and our two team members here and the training that they got. And I mean, this just shows why Hollywood is a class one department and the training that we give. And I think this just demonstrates what we do here in Hollywood and commend you both for what you did. And as far as the HERO program, I don't know if anybody else got to witness what they do, but Boulevard Heights had them. And it was well embraced by all the attendees and what they do. And I commend them, too, for helping to teach others on how to save lives. Thank you.

Thank you all. Thank you. Well, I feel like we can adjourn the meeting now, because that was so special. But from one case to another, thank you all so much. Thank you all, everyone from Hollywood Fire Rescue who's here, Hollywood Police Department, if you're here to support these award recipients. Thank you so much. Happy for you to stay until 5 o'clock, if you like. But otherwise, family as well, you're free to go.

I don't know if I know CPR, but I got a certificate that says I do. No, I was at the Boulevard Heights thing.

Oh, you were? Thank you. Yes, I've seen you twice. Bye, guys. Bye. Beverly.

I know. I had no idea.

I probably saw it on social media. Actually, I saw it on the news, yeah.

All right, well, thank you all so much. Now on to more ordinary business, but nothing is ever ordinary, right, Senator Sharif? Senator Barbara Sharif is here with us. She would like to, and we've invited her, to speak to us regarding the 2026 legislative session. And so we're happy to have her and thank her, of course, for representing us so well in Tallahassee. And here we go again with another session coming up, Senator.

I know. It seems like it just starts and it ends and then it starts again. But it is always a privilege to be here in the great city of Hollywood, one of my favorite cities that I represent. One of the most rewarding parts about representing District 35 in the Florida Senate is listening to the needs of this community. And you guys do that so well by advocating in Tallahassee. And I want to say thank you for always coming up, thanking you for keeping me informed about your issues. And congratulations, Commissioner Shuham. I know you're going to do a great job. I'm especially proud to be here today to present the $170,000 state funding for the Boulevard Heights Community Center senior program expansion. As you know, no appropriation is possible without a partner on the other side. And we've got a great partner in Representative Hilary Cassell, who's here with me as well today. So our seniors have spent decades building our neighborhoods, supporting our families, and contributing to the communities we call home. They deserve opportunities to remain active, connected, and engaged, and supported. I was proud to advocate for this funding during the state budget process, and I look forward to seeing the impact it would have right here in the city of Hollywood. This investment was also part of a broader effort this year to bring state resources home to District 35. Altogether, these successful appropriations represent more than $5.3 million in investments in public safety and infrastructure, education, senior services, veterans' families, and community programs. But my work in Tallahassee went beyond the state budget. This year, I was proud to say that I've received, well, I put forth five bills, and I had five bills signed into law. SB 42, which addressed specific medical diagnosis and child protective investigation, and its health companion, HB 47, passed the legislature and became law. This revamps portion of the DCF program, where children who are removed from their parents' care as a result of medical diagnosis that mimic child abuse now have a way to get their kids back through a legislative process that improves their ability to defend themselves. This is great to keep families unified and to also fix an issue that has been plaguing us for many, many years. I also carried legislation strengthening Florida's Veterans Dental Care Program. As you know, veterans who do not have injuries to their oral area as a result of combat do not get dental coverage. Therefore, veterans are going without dental care. And so this program added to and made a $1.5 million per year Veterans Dental Grant Program that will keep veterans healthy. We had a uterine fibroid database. In the Department of Health, they address issues that affect the community's health. Uterine fibroids and women's health in general is something that we don't really address most of the time. There's always a deficit where it concerns women's health. And so our uterine fibroid research and database bill will allow for us to collect data and also educate women on the side effects and the possible issues that they could face if they have uterine fibroids. We also have this year, we're planning to continue to work on women's health issues. the impact of perimenopause and menopause on our female community. Many people are experiencing these issues, and they don't understand that the anxiety, the palpitations, the memory fog, and all the other things that they're experiencing as a woman have absolutely nothing to do with anything other than the fact that you're lacking estrogen. And for a long time, we in the medical profession, yes, men, listen up, We in the medical profession have been taught through our training that prescribing bioidentical hormone replacement therapy for women was not a good idea because there were side effects. About a year and a half ago, the FDA released a study that said, listen, we've been wrong on this all this time. And so there's a retraining effort going on with all professionals. I'm 34 years in practice, and there's many others of us out there that have been out there and were told out of school, listen, we don't prescribe these therapies for women because they can be at risk for high blood pressure, clots, and strokes. Well, that's just not true. And so I have a bill that I'm working with the Department of Health on that will address that and to help to get some help to the women. And also it will help the men because, you know, we're pretty ornery when we're going through menopause. Just saying. I got mad. I mean, I have road rage now. Oh, was I supposed to say? I'm sorry. I don't have road rage.

As long as you keep that air conditioning on, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my thermostat's possessed.

Yeah.

I have personal summers. Again, one of the other things that we addressed this year was the property taxes. I know during the special session, the legislature advanced in Amendment 3, which you'll see in November. And we're doing our very best job to really inform people on what that means for them and what that means for cities and counties. And so we will, throughout this district and throughout the rest of the year leading up to November, we will have educational seminars within the community so that we can give everybody as much information as possible so that they can vote in an informed manner. If approved by voters, the proposal would increase the homestead exemption for taxes other than school district taxes levied up to $150,000 for the year of 2027 and then $250,000 for 2028. It also would lower the annual cap on increases in assessed value for non-homesteaded property from 10% to 5% beginning in 2027. We recognize that there's challenges with this proposal. And I wanted to let you all know that after the vote, if it does pass, we will go back for an implementation session. And that implementation session would involve the House and the Senate and the governor's office working on ways to minimize the impact to local governments. That will mean at some point in time that some cities or counties that only fund through property taxes may end up being annexed into others around them so that they can continue to function and that those governments will continue to be in place. Let's see. On November the 3rd, it'll be required to pass by a 60% approval. Additionally, the other thing that we're going to handle this year, we had a two-year pushback on property insurance. So as you know, the governor and the Office of Insurance Regulation allowed for admission of about 21 additional insurance carriers to come into the Florida market to write insurance. What they were hoping to gain is that property insurance premiums would decrease by somewhere between 30% and 40% for the residents that are paying them. What we've seen is that that has not occurred. Part of what the plan was is that brokers would have opportunities to reprice through three quotes through all of these new carriers and decrease the rates for property insurance. So some people are doing it. Some people are not. That's what we've seen. And then the other thing that we've seen is that the rates have not dropped substantially like they thought by flooding the market with more carriers. So this is our two-year end to the wait, and I believe that this session we're going back again, and so we'll be dealing with property insurance and property tax. And I'm answering that because every time we go to one of these homeowners meetings, people ask, when are you going to do something about property insurance? And then the last thing is that we are going to... Okay, so we're going to give a check.

Yes.

So we're done. I'm done.

Thank you so much, Dr. Sharif. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Why don't we join Dr. Sharif down below for a photo.

Clearly, the Senate gets a little bit more money than the House when you see my check. And I'm a lefty. She has much nicer handwriting than I am.

The only thing you'll get with this check is that it'll never bounce. I've never bounced a check in my life.

But I wouldn't. This one directly. This one you can't go to bed with.

I have to take them down.

Well, Dr. Sharif, thank you so much. I can tell you that the Boulevard Heights Senior Program is so well attended and serves so many seniors week after week. It's really a special program, and so thank you so much for helping to keep it going. A lot of the seniors just rely on it, and so thank you so much for fighting for us up there, and as well, Representative Cassell. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. This time we have a presentation by Representative Hillary Gassell regarding the 2026 Florida legislative session on the House side. Of course, Senator Sharif is in the Florida Senate and representing us so ably is Representative Gassell. Please.

Thank you, Mayor.

And you brought a check with you as well, right?

I did also bring a check, yes. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. Obviously, it's always such a pleasure to be able to present in front of you a little bit of a summary of what occurred during the 2026 legislative session. The House and Senate are two very different chambers. So I like to always start off my presentation with really talking about the work that we get to do together as a chamber in the House. I don't think we hear about it often enough. So one of the things I always like to focus on, what work did we do together? And overall, 1,896 bills were filed in both chambers. 237 of them passed. This was not a year where there was a lot of policy that actually passed, but 237 bills did get passed. 83% of those bills were passed with bipartisan support, meaning 83% of the time, your legislator, Republican and Democrat, are working together in the best interest of Floridians to make sure that we are tackling the problems. that Floridians are facing. I have the honor and privilege of serving on several committees in the legislature. I serve on the Judiciary Committee. I serve as Vice Chair of Insurance and Banking, as you all know, my favorite place to be. I serve on the Health Care Budget, Housing, Ag, and Tourism Subcommittee, in the Health Care Facilities Subcommittee, and the Information Technology Budget. And I had the opportunity to serve on the Select Committee with property taxes, which is actually a committee that we served on for over a year in the House working on tackling this issue. I had the chance to meet with all five cities that I represent. I spent a significant amount of time with your staff as we were talking about the conversation, knowing that at some point we would see some type of property tax reform. I think when it originally started, we were all thinking that reform was going to look like a complete elimination of property taxes. I will say, over the course of that year working in the House chamber with our speaker and then with our Senate partners, we were very adamant that a complete elimination of property taxes was never going to be sustainable. and ensuring that we protected our public schools was a high priority for both the House and the Senate. And I think that's why you see the proposal that voters will have an opportunity to pass or fail in November. But at the end of the day, we have given them that choice. I passed several pieces of legislation. I was actually the only legislator to pass anything AI related. Unfortunately, it did not make it to the governor's desk. But as everybody knows here, I'm a big insurance advocate, a big consumer advocate. And we know that when it comes to AI and denials, that insurance companies have a high error rate when utilizing AI in either denying or underpaying claims. And that's across all types of claims, whether it be health insurance, property insurance, et cetera. So we were successful in passing that off the House floor. But it got the conversation started about AI and consumer protections. And I look forward to bringing that in the next legislative session. I also passed legislation that was actually brought to me by constituents of District 101, which dealt with expanding access to schools. So we focused on expanding access to micro schools, schools that can provide facilities for children that need additional assistance, whether they have disabilities or to provide additional support for our religious schools. So schools that serve 150 students or less have the ability to operate in mixed-use spaces, which we know since COVID have really been vacant as businesses return to working at home. and leaving sort of that retail space open. We're going to have the ability to utilize those spaces for schools of 150 students or less, but ensuring that cities have the ability to utilize their traffic concerns and making sure that they work with those schools on those issues so we don't run into traffic issues. And then my other project that I love to support are issues related to mental health. Two years ago, I successfully passed legislation that was signed into law that dealt with collecting data on our school resources when it comes to mental health. Since the tragedy that occurred at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas, we've spent almost a billion dollars on providing resources to our students all across the state. But nobody's actually collecting any data to determine whether or not our students are getting any better. Are the dollars that we're spending even reaching these children, and are they getting the help that they need? So we passed legislation two years ago that is starting to collect that data so we can make a determination as a legislature to actually make sure that our dollars are being used in the right space, and most importantly, that our children are getting help. But we also, when we looked into that, realized that that's also happening in our vulnerable population in our community court system. So our mental health court, our veterans court, our drug court, Same scenario, we're funding these programs in an effort to get these people the help that they need so they can not continue to go in and out of the system and get back to being and serving their communities and back to being healthy. That's our goal. But nobody's tracking that data. So this legislative session, I successfully passed that legislation as well. So we'll begin to really take a good look at our overall mental health system here in the state of Florida. and make sure that the dollars that we're spending are actually getting the people the help that they need. When it comes to the legislative budget, we, once again, for the fourth year in a row, reduced the state of Florida's budget. The budget that passed this year was $117 billion. I was successful in securing $41 million. $21 million of that specifically serves District 101, which is anywhere between Hollywood, Hallandale, Dania, Davie, And from $7 million to helping our veterans health clinic at NSU to dollars going to build a nursing program, help build the nursing program at Broward College, to obviously my work with Senator Sharif and Commissioner Gruber. I know a project that you and I have had the pleasure of working on for the last two years is specifically funding this incredible project that you brought to me in honor of your father to provide our seniors with who are suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia access to a center where they are going to be able to get the care that they need and give their loved ones respite. My grandmother had dementia and moved in with my parents and I when I was in high school. And I witnessed firsthand the toll that that can take on those caretakers and how it can truly impact a family and the respite that caretakers need and a safe space that you can send your loved ones to be able to get out and get some arts and crafts or to socialize or to get some exercise and to have a safe place here in the community of City of Hollywood to use one of our facilities specifically for that purpose is a project that is near and dear to my heart. So thank you for trusting me with that the last two years. It's an honor to present to you. I don't know where Connie went.

Again, the Senate must get all of the dollars to make these nice checks.

So we secured another $250,000 this year. So thank you. for a total of $500,000 over the course of the last two years. And I know it's my understanding that come November, we are looking at a grand opening. And I'm sure you might address that when I close my remarks. But the last thing I wanted to comment is similar to what Senator Sharif said. It's truly a pleasure to represent this city. I have called Hollywood, whether it be my actual home or where business home is located for over 20 years. And it's truly an honor. You guys are such incredible advocates for the people that live here and the type of lifestyle that we want people to be able to enjoy. And I enjoy spending time with you in Tallahassee and getting your phone calls and hearing what your concerns are. And I hopefully answer that call to the best of my abilities as well. So thank you for allowing me to work with you and serving this great city.

Yes. Representative Cassell, from the bottom of my heart, I can't thank you enough for getting behind this initiative. You know, it's going to provide a much-needed service for respite care and for quality of life for people that suffer with dementia and Alzheimer's. And the goal here, and I can't, John Strader, who brought this to me from the National Alzheimer's Association, worked tirelessly to for this cause is to really have this be the first of many throughout Florida, throughout Hollywood, throughout the country, where we can use underutilized community centers that aren't being activated Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, and bring these centers so the business pencils out that operators are able to do it and we can provide this service for respite care. And I just can't thank you enough for getting behind it. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Cassell. We're certainly grateful for all the work that you do up in Tallahassee. We have great confidence when we know you're there advocating because you do, like us, know the needs of the community, and especially your work on property insurance is coming back to being very, of course, important because after the discussion of property tax, there is, of course, this other large bill that we all recognize maybe doesn't need to be as large, never used to be as large, and that hopefully the legislature can help rein in the market. I know you have some proposals that you've set forth before the legislature years ago They're just now talking about saying, hey, this might be a good idea. And so go ahead.

Both candidates running for governor talk about two of my proposed pieces of legislation. So-

All right.

Well, it's finally making its way. It takes some time for people to start to listen, especially when you talk about overhauling very large systems that have been in place for a very long time. But both of them see the need to reform both our catastrophic fund, which will have a huge 30 to 40 percent decrease in premiums, as well as moving citizens back to a wind only policy, which is what it was always meant to be. So exciting time.

Well, let's hope for good things in this upcoming legislative session in that regard. Thank you. Let's do that photo. Thank you.

A little darker for the check to be seen.

so we're going to get this one.

So far, we've had a lot of good news with all these presentations. And we're going to continue that trend, because there are also good things happening right here on the ground in Hollywood. So I'm proud to ask Shannon Hunter, who is the mother of Marquise Brown and the chairman of the Hollywood Brown Foundation. I see Commissioner Linda Anderson here as well to thank them for and recognize them for the city support for the Marquise Brown football training camp. So welcome, Commissioner Anderson. Good to see you. And thank you Ms. Hunter.

Hi, I'm Shannon James. I'm Marquise Brown's mom. Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, members of the city commission, city staff, and everyone here today. On behalf of Marquise Hollywood Brown, his family, and the entire Hollywood Brown Foundation, we want to take a moment to thank you on behalf of Marquise. Hollywood Brown Day is incredibly special to us because Hollywood is home. No matter where Marquis' journey has taken him, from growing up right here in the community, to college football, and now playing in the NFL, and now he's with the Philadelphia Eagles. He has remained committed to coming back home and giving back to the community that helped shaped him. And for that reason, it means so much to us The year after year, the mayor, the vice mayor, the city commissioner, and the city of Hollywood continue to stand beside Hollywood Brown Foundation and support our vision for Hollywood Brown Day. This year, we were blessed to celebrate five years, our fifth annual Hollywood Brown Day. Once again, bringing the community together and creating a day centered around youth and families. Through this event, we've been able to provide school supplies, groceries to families, youth activities, football programming, food, entertainment, and most importantly, a positive environment where our community can come together. But one of the things we're especially proud of is that the Impact Hollywood Brown Day doesn't stop when the event ends. For this past three years, we have also had the opportunity to award a college scholarship to a graduating high school student. helping them take the next step toward higher education and their future. That has become one of the most meaningful parts of the Hollywood Brown Day for us, because giving back isn't only about what we can provide today. It's also about investing in what our young people can become tomorrow. And none of this happens without partnership. Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Commissioners, we sincerely thank you for your continued support, not only this year but every year, that you have welcomed us back and helped us continue to grow this event. Thank you for believing in what we're doing. Thank you for helping us create opportunities for our young people. Thank you for helping us support families throughout the community. And thank you for allowing Marquise the opportunity to continue coming home and showing our young people that success doesn't mean forgetting where you came from. It means remembering where you came from and reaching back to help someone else move forward. We also want to recognize Hollywood PAL, city staff, our sponsors, community, partners, volunteers, and everyone behind the scenes who continues to help make Hollywood Brown Day possible. Every year, so many people give their time, resources, and energy to make this day special. And we truly are grateful for each and every one of you. As the Hollywood Brown Foundation continues to grow, we hope this Hope that Hollywood Brown Day continues to grow with it, allowing us to provide even more resources, awards, and more scholarships, create more opportunities for our youth, and make an even greater impact right here in the city of Hollywood. And also, I would like to thank our very own former commissioner, Ms. Linda Anderson, because I first came to her with this idea about giving back, because I once was a young mother that did it by myself. And my kid wanted to play ball, and I didn't have the funds. And someone came and supported me. I wanted to move forward. My son had this opportunity, being a single mother of two that suffered kidney failure at the time, was on dialysis for five years, and was able to stand beside my kids. And I talked to Ms. Anderson. She said, sure, I'll help you with whatever you have to do. And so I just want to just thank each and every one of you for the opportunity. Now, with the awards. We had a little mishap inside. On the day we had all the awards for all of you. Commissioner, you received yours. You received yours. But some kind of way, somebody disappeared. But I'm going to tell you, we will have your plaques here in hand.

OK. Our award is your success and the success that Marquise and the foundation are bestowing upon the kids. That's the award.

So thank you so much. Thank you. And I truly appreciate each and every one of you.

Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Anderson, you weren't green because of the Philadelphia Eagles or just because it's a nice color?

Hey, money. I'd just like to say thank you all for your support. And remember, always remember that Marquis Day is always the second Saturday in July. And after you all leave and change up, I still want you all to support them. I don't live here anymore, but I still come back and support. And I still love Hollywood. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you all. Well, we have one final presentation. It's item 28. It's a celebration, is it? Andrea Winges, she's the director of development services, along with Russell Long. He's, of course, the chief building official here in Hollywood about a successful launch of phase two of the Acela permitting software, a large undertaking. Andrea and Russell, congratulations on this launch.

Thank you. So good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Commissioners, Andrea Winget, Director of Development Services. We have several staff members in the audience. You're welcome to please come up, join me. Come on up, Building Development Services. You're here for this. As the Mayor said, this is a celebration, not just a CELA. You know, we're really here today to celebrate a huge milestone, not just for the Department of Development Services, but for the city, for the residents, and for all of the other departments who helped make this happen for us. This has been a multi-year project that incorporated two phases that has taken a significant amount of staff time from a variety of departments and resources within the city. And we have gone live with Acela, which is our new building permit process management from a variety of not just permits, but from items that public utilities takes in, zoning takes in, and everybody. And we're here today to celebrate that. We're here to expand our digital services and look at how we manage paperwork between departments and between our customers. What this represents is truly a true digital platform. We have been taking things in via email, but we have not had a portal where customers can be directly responsible for their papers and their permits and their processes that they need to come through the city in a regulatory manner for and this really is a true digital service that the city is launching holistically across multiple departments it increases our ability to communicate across departments and to be able to see the same thing real time by everybody, whether you're in the field or you're in the office, and just creates better workflows and process improvement for everyone. And so now our building official, Russell Long, is going to take us through a couple other portions of this, and then I'll wrap it up at the end.

RUSSELL LONG, Thank you, Andrea.

You already went on this one.

How to create and access your account, a simple, straightforward process. In the Acela platform, you can create your username, your password, your email. The benefits of having an account in Acela is that you can monitor your permits, your properties, schedule inspections, upload documents. You can control the activity that you are directly involved with. Customers with or without an account can search permits, can look up properties, records using address, folio numbers, or contractor or owner's name. These simple tools create a more convenient, transparent, and accessible experience while reducing the need to contact staff for basic information. This is an address-based search that displays the information associated with the property entered in the search bar. The search results include certificate of use, BSIP, which is your building safety inspection program history, code violation history, permitting history for the property that's in the search. We also know that Acela is also streamlining the process. The certificate of use and the zoning verification letter process clearly demonstrates the operational value of phase two automation with Acela. Both are high volume processes that previously required significant manual intake, additional time spent for research, routing, tracking, and processing by staff. Phase 2 automates these key steps, including application intake, review routing, and reducing staff touch points and administrative delays. Overall, the automated workflow provides a greater efficiency, consistency, and visibility throughout the review process. Before, processes that took weeks now takes minutes. Automation is also tied to the GIS system that verifies whether an application complies with the city zoning ordinances. In Acela, we also have a GIS mapping. If you go to the city's website under Permits at the bottom of the screen, you'll see where the red arrow is showing you to find the GIS mapping for Acela. This is a GIS map where you can view permits related to the information by location. As you can see, the city hall is selected here. If you click on any of the blue dots, it will tell you the information under that property. I do have a speech I want to write. Before I do that, I'd like to make a statement to the mayor, commissioner, city manager's office. I want to take a moment to thank each of you for your support, your continued support, and your vision during the implementation of the Acela permitting software system. But today I want to recognize Sincerely thank City of Hollywood staff that have worked timelessly for the past two and a half years to test, develop, and implement our new Acela permitting software system. Two and a half years. That's just since we started with Acela. We actually started this three years ago. And it's been a process. This has been a tremendous team effort involving departments across the city, including building, planning and zoning, engineering, public utilities, fire, code compliance, treasury, information technology, CMED, and the city's clerk's office. Over the past two and a half years, our staff spent countless hours testing the system, identifying problems, working through the challenges, retesting, and helping ensure that the system works for our residents, the businesses, contractors, and the employees. And staff did this while continuing to perform their regular responsibilities. Many of the staff stayed late. They worked many hours beyond what was expected of them. They went above and beyond because they understood how important the project is to the city and to the people we serve. This accomplishment is not the work of one department or one individual. It is the result of teamwork, dedication, patience, perseverance, and shared commitment to improve the service to our community. So to every employee who contributed to these To these over the past two and a half years, I want to say thank you for your hard work, your professionalism, and dedication to the city of Hollywood. Your commitment has made a difference, and it deserves recognition and appreciation. So on behalf of the city of Hollywood, I want to thank you, building. I want to thank you, planning and zoning. I want to thank you, engineering. I want to thank you, public utilities. I want to thank you, fire. I want to thank you, code compliance. I want to thank you, treasury. I want to thank you, IT. I want to thank you, CMED. And I want to thank you, city clerk's office. And most importantly, I want to thank each and every employee, manager, supervisor, project team member, and the department representative who contributed to this effort. The success of this project is a reflection of your professionalism, your teamwork, and your dedication to the city of Hollywood. Two and a half years of testing, preparation, problem solving, and implementation is a remarkable commitment. The hours you invested, especially the hours your normal responsibilities, demonstrate something that cannot be purchased or programmed into a computer, a genuine commitment to public service. I hope each of you understand how much your work is appreciated. Today we are recognizing more than just the implementation of a new software system. We are recognizing the people behind it, the people who gave their time, their knowledge, their energy, and their dedication to move the city forward. Thank you for your work of the extra hours. Thank you for going above and beyond. Thank you for your patience and perseverance. And most importantly, thank you for caring about the city of Hollywood and the people we serve. This accomplishment belongs to all of you. Congratulations, and thank you for an extraordinary job well done.

So everything that Russell talked about really couldn't happen without the team who's here today. And it was really about when we kind of look back over time and we look to where we've come from to where we've gone, it's really about the impact and the innovation, the process improvement, our customer service, and the technology that we're bringing to the residents. So, you know, there was countless trainings that were done internally and externally. There have not only been trainings on how to use this software, but customer service training and learning how to adapt to change. We specifically had targeted trainings within all of the users for the departments that are using this. And with that, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and city commissions, I ask that you please come together, if you can, on the dais for me. It's time to celebrate. And so if we can celebrate, accelerate, excella for our new permitting software system. So if we can all gather together. And this represents us turning the system on and moving us forward at the city into a new digital era for all of us. So if you can all lean in. And Mayor, we're going to ask you to please, with your colleagues, turn the button on. I'm going to count down. Are you counting down, Mayor? 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And so the video that's playing represents the amount of papers in our prior processes that is now going away as we flip the switch and we accelerate into our future together.

Well, on behalf of the city commission and the residents and the business owners, Russell and team, Andrea, Jim, everybody, thank you so much. We know when we charged the city manager, city managers ago as well, to help expedite the permitting process, we knew a lot of it would require new software. simultaneous review from the various disciplines and just overall process improvement. And through those years, we've not only invested in Acela first phase, second phase, but also built the brand new development services department and divisions over the library and the second floor. And we also added a lot of new team members. to the building division to help get things processed. So all that together, it really is a new moment in time, a new modern moment for the city of Hollywood. And we know we have aspirations to even continue to migrate additional customer touch points to Acela to both give the staff and, of course, the residents of the businesses, first and foremostly, an easier time transacting with the city. you know getting their building permits process and their their approvals and their business licenses uh process as quick as possible we all know all the hopes and dreams that we have for the city i always say even those that we talk about with our own capital improvement projects that we talked about this morning during the workshop all need to flow through the building uh division and building uh permit review and approval and so uh your accelerated momentum now and your new processes will help serve both what we do internally and of course every other hope and dream for Hollywood business owners and residents here in the City of Hollywood as they look to improve their property and in the end grow our tax base and make us more self-sufficient through our own internal growth that we help support out there in the community. So thank you all so much. Really proud moment. And we look forward to continuing to help you and give you the tools needed to be the best building division and best development services that we can be in the state of Florida. So thank you so much. All right. Now I really feel that we can adjourn the meeting, right, Lynn? But no. Thank you all to everybody from Development Services. Appreciate it. Congratulations. Russell, I hope you have some fresh fruit for them or something, some kind of celebration. The celebration must continue. All right. It is a little bit past 1.30. So let's head through our agenda in order of the agenda here. On 130 times certain items, this is an ordinance on second reading advertised in conformance with state statutes and city codes as a public hearing. No changes since the first reading from the Department of Utilities. Item 29 is an ordinance of the City of Hollywood amending Chapter 51 of the Code of Ordinances entitled Water to update the current regulations relating to accounts and procedures providing for a severability clause repealer provision codification and effective date of course you all remember before the break we had a long first reading that where utilities had gone through you know all the details of this new ordinance that provides a lot of opportunity to streamline even in the case of utilities the processes for our residents and for our customers and so are there any speaker cards on item 29 And Ralston, please come on up.

Okay, there you go. This was from the meeting before, and they were actually 29 and 30 on the last agenda, I think, or 29, 30, 31, I think would be exact. That was what was printed, what I printed for the meeting right before break. This is what is the backup for today's on the second reading. I don't know why they're different. This is the update. The rates don't make sense to me. From what I remember on these, these rates were going up 25%. each year for three years on water and sewer. That was back then. This was from a report done in 25, which is the backup now. It shows us as number four in the highest in water sewer rates. I am now paying instead of $93.72, because I don't use enough. That's my base rate, whether I use it or not. So I don't conserve. well, I try to conserve, but I pay for non-use, is now $100. So we're still at fourth. But when you approve these, you are going to really hurt residents' water and sewer bills. And I don't care how you want to spend it. I'm sorry, but the well gets dry on fixed incomes, especially when you talk about senior citizens and taking care of people. You're feeing us to death. So please be very careful when you do this.

Thank you. So this instant item is the ordinance update. with regards to the regulations and the accounts and procedures. And so I'd like to close the public hearing. That was open and close the public hearing. I'd like to accept a motion on the item. We have a motion from Commissioner Biederman and a second from Vice Mayor Kaleri to approve item 29. City attorney, please read the ordinance. And let's read the roll call vote.

An ordinance of the city of Hollywood, Florida amending Chapter 51 of the Code of Ordinances entitled Water to update the current regulations relating to accounts and procedures providing for a severability clause and a repealer provision, codification, and an effective date.

Commissioner Quintana? Yes. Commissioner Shuham? Yes. Commissioner Hernandez? Yes. Vice Mayor Kaleri? Yes. Commissioner Gruber? Yes. Commissioner Biederman? Yes. Mayor Levy?

yes let's show the ordinance passing unanimously on second reading and I know Phyllis is here and she would be prepared to provide a quick update but this particular ordinance change really helps to relax a lot of the leak reviews and the extends opportunities for residents to have better recourse with the city and very many across the right many different areas and so it's a it's a helpful provision I'm sorry Right, yeah. The next item is the rates. Item 30 is an ordinance of the City of Hollywood amending Section 52.53 of the Code of Ordinances entitled Rates and Charges for the Use of the System, updating the current regulations relating to accounts and procedures and providing for repeal, servability, codification, and effective date. This is also an ordinance on second reading, advertising, and forms of state statutes and city codes as a public hearing without any changes since the first reading from DPU. I'll go ahead and open the public hearing. Are there any speaker cards on 30? And Ralston, please come on up.

It's the same. It's basically the same thing I said. There's no need to repeat myself. But just be careful sometimes what you wish for. Also, I do believe that this is a sneaky little way for the residents on sewer to pay for septic to sewer. So we've got to keep an eye out.

Public hearing is now closed. Just for the public record, I just want to clarify for those watching. Of course, the city is responsible, and we have the role and the responsibility to provide clean drinking water and treat wastewater in the city of Hollywood. We have regional plants in the wastewater plant. We have, of course, the water treatment plant. And those plants are... aging and are 70 plus years old and need a lot of work. And so our staff brought forward to us a plan where across the board both the water plant and the wastewater plant will be improved and modernized and practically rebuilt and brought to the modern era like the Acela did for the building division. And unfortunately that costs hundreds of millions of dollars. And so these rate increases none of us enjoy having to increase anything in the city, but we do have to pay For the plants in order for them to continue to provide the service to treat wastewater and to provide clean drinking water It's an obligation of ours There's what we're going to look for every efficient way to undertake those hundreds of million dollars of projects And so part of that of course is going to be born on the on the ratepayers and so We did come up with a plan that was smooth to be as efficient as possible, even from an affordability standpoint, though I do not disagree. These are significant rate increases for the next three or four years, and then it's going to continue to be high. And so that's just the reality of repairing and updating very old water treatment and water plants. City Manager?

Yeah, Mayor, I just want to make sure. You're absolutely right. We have had extensive presentations regarding the needs at our water and sewer treatment plants and within the overall transmission system for water and the collection system for our wastewater plant. And we've presented those rates and adopted them back in July. And I know that that was very challenging for the commission. These particular two items are actually designed to update our code of ordinances as to how sewer credits and water credits are applied when there are a leak and when we have a situation where we need to look back where maybe a meter has not been functioning properly. Previously, we would be able to look back 36 months, and that was a really long time, maybe actually even longer. Five years. Sorry, five years. That's not the right number. And now we're really, we've limited that to a 12-month look back. So it actually, these are customer service enhancements that you're voting on today. Absolutely, we have needed to look at significant rate increases, and those were attached to this agenda item. So people are aware of that. But really, as it specifically relates to these two ordinances that are before you today, the concept is really just to make it more customer friendly when you do have a leak and you need to apply for a credit, or when you do get that estimated bill or you have a meter problem, how that gets resolved more quickly. So that's just wanted to clarify that.

Thank you. At this time, no. At this time, I'll invite members of the body to make a motion or for any comment. Commissioner Hernandez. Thank you, Mayor.

The question that I have is I wanted to make sure that what we talked about where we can have to fix the meters within the three months, is this part of this ordinance? Or is that something that it's?

No, it's not part of this ordinance, but that is our commitment that we are working to be able to fix those right away. I do not believe it's part of this.

And the reason why was because there was support from the commission in order for that to be established. How is that going to be established if it's not going to be part of the ordinance? And don't tell us.

We can absolutely look at that. And if we need to, if the desire of the commission is to further codify that, we are obviously, we had a budget workshop this morning. And a big part of that was how do we create the staffing that we need to make sure that when we have those meter transmission unit issues that we address them. This is looking at if we have a situation where we are needing to, where we've estimated a bill and we're doing a look back, it limits the time.

I understand what this is, and I think it helps the residents, period. But my point is, and some of my friends kind of joke with me, yeah, trust but verify, because I ask a lot of questions when it comes to this. And I do not distrust the staff, but trust The support from the commission and the commitment was that you would only go back three months. Now, this says 12 months. And if there's a broken meter, I'm getting calls on a regular basis. And as some of the staff have said, well, you're not getting 40,000 calls. I may not. But we haven't gone through all of the meters yet. I just want not only the commitment, but I want to see whether it's a resolution or whether it's part of this ordinance. that within 90 days the meter issue will be addressed. I don't want customers to continue to get, oh, we're going to estimate back 12 months, and that's just not fair to our residents. And if we're looking to put another 57 individuals to be able to work for the City of Hollywood and the Underground Utility Department, we ought to be able to give that commitment to our residents. That's all I'm saying. Yes.

We absolutely, it is an operational process, and we are working on that three-month time frame. As soon as we detect that there is a problem, that is what we are doing.

Can we have it as a resolution? Was that not what we talked about?

We could.

Okay. I would prefer to have a resolution. I'm okay passing this.

It's already has support, so.

Okay. Good. Thank you.

Okay. All right.

Okay.

All right, we do have a motion and a second from Commissioner Biederman, second from Vice Mayor Kaleri on the ordinance, item 30. Let's go ahead and read the ordinance and call the roll call vote.

An ordinance of the city of Hollywood, Florida amending section 52.53 of the code of ordinances entitled rates and charges for use of system to update the current regulations relating to accounts and procedures providing for repeal, severability, modification, and an effective date.

Commissioner Quintana? Yes. Commissioner Shuham.

Yes.

Commissioner Hernandez. Yes. Vice Mayor Kaleri. Yes. Commissioner Gruber. Yes. Commissioner Biederman.

Yes.

Mayor Levy.

Yes. All right. Let's show the ordinance passing unanimously on second reading. All right, on to item 31. This is a resolution of the City Commission and City of Hollywood accepting the Washington Park Industrial Area Redevelopment Program recommendations, providing a policy direction regarding phased implementation of the recommendations, providing for certain limitations, and providing for an effective date. This is advertised as a public hearing. This is a resolution. Before we open the item, I just do want to put something on the record. There's been question as to whether or not I would need to abstain from this item because I have family that owns property within Washington Park Industrial Park. and so as required and as proper protocol i asked the city attorney the question she researched the matter and found that i have an obligation to participate on the item and because there is not a conflict of interest as defined by florida law and so city attorney if you could just summarize for the public record

In regards to the specific item in the vote today, as a threshold consideration in the analysis, we looked at what the item actually sought to do. This item is a non-binding policy guidance and therefore confers no specific benefit to any property in the area. And any benefit that is conferred is remote and speculative. Further, the mayor has no personal ownership interest, though his brothers do own land in the area. However, there is no special economic private gain or loss to the mayor or any relative. The mayor is not required to abstain from today's vote, as he mentioned, but this analysis does not extend past today's vote.

All right, so that resolves that. Thank you. All right, Andrea, please go ahead.

Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, city commissioners, Andrea Winget, director of development services. And while we're bringing up the presentation, we're here today to talk about the comprehensive redevelopment program for Washington Park. This has been a long time coming. And before we get started, I would like to also thank, I know today is a lot about celebrations and things, but I really do want to take a minute to thank the other departments who also contributed to creating this vision for this area of the city. And that extends far beyond development services, planning, engineering, building. It extends to the fire department, to code compliance, parking, communications, marketing, and economic development. Because we could never do anything independently or alone. It always takes a team, especially when we're creating visions and master planning certain areas of the city. And of course, I would also like to thank the residents and those community members and the commission for participating in your contribution to this as well. So we started this project in 2025. And at that time, the commission directed city staff to come up with a comprehensive redevelopment program for approximately 160 acres of the city, which we generally know as Washington Park. The program looks holistically at the future land use, zoning, urban design, infrastructure, environmental, economic development, and opportunities for reinvestment in the area and the physical improvements. It's not a document or just a collection of recommendations. This is actually a vision and a framework for the future of this area. It's a living document. It's iterative. It will probably change over time as we start to bring forward and implement portions of this vision or this master plan for this area. There's individual initiatives that will require further commission action and consideration by all stakeholders. What this document is not is it does not change the zoning in this area. It does not approve anything site-specific for this area. It does not change the land use. It is going to be a shared, unified vision so that staff can start to program different items to move this area forward. And those items are identified through the challenges, the risks, and the potentials of this area. This has been, as I already mentioned, this has been a comprehensive exercise that was undertaken. It serves as an important model to allow for intentional planning and reinvestment and visioning this area it's been a long time since the city since our planning division has brought forward any type of visioning so I know it can be you know it's a little different from some of the things that we've recently brought forward but this is a common item that we used to do quite often in various parts of the city and it's a it's a normal planning exercise when we're looking to have a shared unified vision for how we can move parts of the city forward with challenges that we're experiencing today. And with that, I would like to turn it over to Juan Mular, who is going to walk us through the program.

Thank you very much. And good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. It's a pleasure to be here. It's been a year. You probably don't remember me anymore. I was the one that was stuck in traffic on 95 a year ago. And I was still stuck in traffic today. So some things don't change. But the beauty of the work that I do is that things eventually change. And this is one of the reasons why we're here, to envision how things may change. It's been a year since we put a team together, a multidisciplinary team, to tackle some challenging work. Washington Park presented some challenges that were unique to the area. So we work together, our firm Plaservia, we are specialists in visioning, with Business Flare, who does market studies and economic studies, as well as EXP, experienced engineers and mobility experts. We've done this before, and coincidentally, I was at a public hearing yesterday in the city of Miami where we were talking about Little Havana. Little Havana started over 10 years ago when we established a vision This is exactly what we're doing here today, presenting to you a vision that will take a long time to get implemented. As it was just said, this is not something that changes tomorrow. This is looking to the long-term future and seeing what actions you guys can do today to start that evolution and how things may change in the future. So I commend you for that vision because, again, it's not just Hollywood that doesn't do it. Most municipalities are working with zoning and direct policies without really understanding what the long-term vision may be. And this is what this project establishes, something that can help you see things through and ensure that you have north right up there and you understand where you're going in the long term. So the project goals, other than creating a long-term vision, were very simple. It was to see what exists there today, to listen to the community. And I thank you for coming to the workshops that we had some months ago. It feels like forever ago. and listen to the community, understand what their needs and wants were and are and may be in the future, and then establish a cohesive and holistic document that, again, can guide you and also help your residents understand where the city is going and hopefully, and through this document, mitigate some of the anxiety that people have because change creates anxiety. Again, this vision plan does that. And it creates that guiding document that can help you now and in the future. So why Washington Park? Very simple. It's a challenging neighborhood. It's a challenging community, a district. It's at the southern edge of your city. And it creates a gateway. One of the reasons why it is challenging is because it is a very interesting land use area. or area based on land use, because it's not just the residents that live there, but the people that work there. It's a great engine for your business community, not just for Hollywood, but also for the county itself. So respecting and understanding how to evolve the community over time and ensuring that we not just protect the neighbors, but also the businesses that are there, and that we continue to provide an area where people can service their cars and service and provide services for the rest of the community, not just now, but in the future. So those things were challenging. And then I'll introduce Maria. Maria, if you want to come up. Again, it's been more than a year. I think it was said that it was just shy of a year. It was more than a year, and it's been a pleasure working with you, working with the community. And hopefully this project, this document guides and helps you understand how to evolve the community for its future success. Maria.

Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, and commissioners. My name is Maria Benfeld. I'm project manager for Plasturbia Design. So as Juan mentioned, we've been working over a year on this project. During that time, we conducted extensive community outreach through surveys, workshops, open houses, walking audit, and we listened to the community. We refined the vision. We confirmed the priorities and shaped the final plan. The project website was the central hub for announcements, surveys, updates to the community feedback. All the summaries, all the documents, reports are posted on the website as well. So what did we hear? So we gathered more than 1,000 comments from the community outreach process, and five priorities emerged. Preserving the industrial character, improving the district appearance, addressing parking and mobility challenges, investing in infrastructure, neighborhood serving uses and green spaces, Also investing in infrastructure and plan for the future redevelopment of the area and protect the residential neighborhoods. You can see a complete community outreach and background analysis reports on the project website as well. So what is this document? I think Andrea already summarized it, but I want to reiterate. So this is a framework of recommendations based on technical analysis and the community input. It's a vision. It's a roadmap. It's a tool to help plan future improvements. It sets a shared vision and recommends next steps. It's not a final design or a fixed schedule or a promise to build everything all at once or a required spending plan. This action plan serves as a roadmap for turning recommendations into actions. Each recommendation of the plan identifies responsibilities, suggested timelines, potential funding sources, and measures of success. The recommendation action steps are divided in short, mid, and long-term. The short-term recommendations focus on organization, safety, appearance, and branding. The mid-term recommendations focus on infrastructure, mobility, improvements, and redevelopment tools. And the long-term recommendations focus on major investments and corridor build-up. So what can change first? The short-term recommendations focus on visible improvements that can be implemented relatively quickly and can have a big impact. One of the ways to incentivize visible changes fast is the creation of a facade improvement program specifically for Washington Park. It's a simple step that can have a big impact. The city already has successful matching grants programs that encourage private investment. and improve properties and neighborhoods. Little River is another example in the city of Miami that has been very successful. The goal is to create a cleaner, safer, and more attractive district while maintaining its authentic industrial character. The recommendations include simple design criteria to help guide improvements. There are examples that are provided that can help the city staff and the applicant with clear examples that can help them understand the design expectations of the improvements. The recommendations also suggest establishing a strong district identity through branding, wayfinding, gateway features, and business promotion initiatives. These can help improve the appearance of the district without disrupting the existing businesses and operations. Through our workshops and further refinement, we define the role of each street. in the industrial area to create a clear framework for future improvements, recognizing that each street serves a different function within the district. So an example is like some street might prioritize business frontages and pedestrians, while other streets focus on the industrial access and local traffic loading. The result is a framework that helps guide future improvements. related to mobility, safety, parking, streetscape investment, and future development. So parking was one of the biggest concerns raised by all stakeholders during the community outreach phase. So some recommendations include improving parking enforcement, compliance, education about parking rules, clearly defining parking areas to improve organization and traffic flow, better management of existing parking, exploring standards for temporary gravel lots, and shared parking specifically for the primary study area. with the goal to make parking work better for businesses, employees, customers, and nearby residents. And this is an example of the short-term recommendations that suggest installing clear pavement markings to define the parking areas, the pedestrian crossings, the areas where parking is not allowed, all within the public right of way. These are conceptual ideas that will require refinement with staff and the community. These suggestions can help create a safer and more organized conditions for all users, like I mentioned before, and while continuing to support the industrial operations. A key priority through the development of this plan was to protect and respect the residential neighborhoods. And short-term recommendations suggest reducing truck and commercial vehicle traffic on residential streets through a traffic study to evaluate the feasibility for doing that, managing parking spillover, temporary gravel lots, like I mentioned before, and implementing traffic calming strategies like speed pumps to reduce speeds on residential streets, for example. So what can change next in the midterm? Midterm recommendations focus on infrastructure, mobility improvements, and redevelopment tools. This example shows South 56th Avenue, which was designated as an A street that prioritizes business frontages and pedestrian comfort. This is an example of how improvements can be tailored to each street's role. This shows improvements that can include traffic calming measures, parking management, swale restoration to improve water permeability, enhanced pedestrian crossings and sidewalks, improved transit and bicycle access, and even district branding and streetscape upgrades, as you can see on the right-hand side. Another suggested strategy was to help create better transitions between the industrial core, the major corridors, and nearby residential areas. by encouraging neighborhood-serving businesses such as cafes, small restaurants, food trucks, and everyday services in strategic locations, using the street hierarchy to guide investment to the streets where these uses make the most sense, and supporting flexible building types that can accommodate small businesses, live-work units, flex spaces, workshops, etc. In the midterm, the plan also recommends guiding redevelopment opportunities to the key corridors, the identified A streets, such as 441, and adopting guidelines for consistent building frontages. So what can the long-term future look like? Long-term recommendations focus on resilience, economic competitiveness, and a larger capital improvement projects. So the long-term recommendations suggest evaluating the feasibility for converting some streets into one way. Using the street hierarchy framework, the goal is to balance movement, enhance safety, increase parking opportunities and ground permeability, and support business operations and ensure that emergency access and neighborhood connectivity are maintained. In the long term, the plan encourages redevelopment to be focused along major corridors and opportunity sites where new investment can deliver the greatest public benefit. As I mentioned before, an essential principle throughout the development of the plan was to protect the residential neighborhoods. This means preparing for future redevelopment and encouraging transitions between land uses and avoiding drastic scale shifts. The plan suggests strategies to direct growth to appropriate corridor locations while gradually transitioning to established residential neighborhoods. and still respecting the existing development rates. So the result is a balance between growth and neighborhood protection. And in the long term, the plan suggests policies and incentives for future projects that could also contribute through a public benefit program, for example, to get more or improved open spaces, connectivity, streetscape enhancements, gateway features, and community amenities, such as a new fire station that was mentioned throughout the community outreach and meeting with the different departments. So this shows the matrix of all the short-term recommendations that are available at the end of the vision plan. You can see here 23 suggested short-term recommendations that staff can take, study, and bring forward to you when feasible. And I think Cameron can take this slide over to further discuss.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Commissioner Cameron Palmer, Assistant Director of Development Services. I want to take a moment, too, as we bring the presentation home to talk about next steps. The document outlines, as Marie says, a collection of recommendations and a sequence roadmap. And as Andrea said earlier, it's intended to be a living framework. And what that means is as we go through, we organize, we test, we calibrate, we prioritize, and we invest. And understanding that the city has already made investments in Washington Park in site-specific or content-specific investments, through this process we've evaluated and realized that Washington Park's challenges and opportunities need to be viewed holistically as a district, meaning that we can leverage the opportunities to overcome the challenges using the roadmap that's been presented to us. So the question then becomes, what can we do today? What small wins can we achieve to have big impacts? So what staff has done on the screen, you'll see the tangible next steps outlined in four recommendations. And these are what staff have distilled from the short-term recommendations that the consultant has put forward. The first being coordination. It's really important that staff is able to coordinate among the internal divisions and departments along with our partners to create a working group for Washington Park. This working group will be responsible and the project manager to enact this action plan and to see through the different time horizons. But more importantly, it allows departments and the city to align budgets, resources, staffing, existing plans and future plans to ensure that we are now calibrated with the action plan. Once we are all aligned internally, we can start tackling some of the more operational and obvious issues that face the district, including number two, which is organized parking and curb management. mapping existing parking locations, future parking locations, striping where feasible, and also establishing standards that we as a city can create to enable interim or temporary parking solutions are really tangible elements or things that city can do to impact, make functional changes to Washington Park. That leads us to number three, which is advancing safety and traffic circulation. This includes low-cost elements such as signage, crosswalk markings, and more in-depth looks at traffic movements, such as where traffic is moving in and out of the site, where goods are moving, where people are moving, and where pedestrians are moving. Lastly, recommendation number four, again, within the short-term scope, is advancing the facade, gateway, and code improvement tools. This was the facade improvement, the painting, the numbering that was discussed by Maria. This allows the district to be more attractive, cleaner, more recognizable. It creates a brand that can easily access and easily be implemented through the renovation, which is a natural course of business development. But most importantly, it becomes more inviting for investment. The important takeaway today is that this is not just a collection of recommendations that are aspirational. They're specific, they're tailored, and they're sequenced on purpose. They're intended to build on one another and are not intended to come all at one fiscal year or all at one time. If we organize, we test, we calibrate, and we invest, then each of these small actions can and will ultimately lead to the Washington Park that we are looking to achieve. With that, staff, myself, the consultant, Nicole, the project manager for this project, is here to answer questions.

Thank you, Cameron. Thank you to the consultants. Pat, are there any speaker cards on this item? Thank you. Ann Ralston, followed by Michael Seltzer.

I don't know why they turn them off. It was stated that it's going to be a unified vision for the area. To me, unified would be all decisions kind of agree, 50 plus 1 agree to this. I heard that there was 1,000 comments, but it didn't say whether they're for or against. I know the beach community doesn't want 1301, but gee, it's getting unified in our faces. The lakes didn't want the MIPFA. Plenty came out to speak against, but gee, That's a unified vision for, I guess, the area, regardless of what the residents think. So because when I read the report, I only saw Nadine McRae's name on there. Everything else was thank you to someone else, not the citizens that participated in this quote study. I'd also like to know, what did this study cost? us if it's just something visionary. So pretty pictures everything. It doesn't mean anything. And you can't change the character of a neighborhood unless they want that change. So I don't know if the residents want it, but I don't see anyone here from them. I don't know if they, like most people, work. So maybe they can't be here. Maybe they've written in. I don't know. But here's another problem with this, infrastructure. And just like the sewer plant that you wanted to tell me how this is for infrastructure that's been ignored, that is very true. And infrastructure throughout this city has been ignored for years. And until there is a crisis, and it costs the citizens 20 twice as much or more to fix it. There is not a regular maintenance program that finally, I think maybe a year ago, started to get implemented in the budget. And that's for landscaping, anything. So you can make pretty pictures, and you can put trees and stuff. But if they're not willing or the city cannot afford to maintain it, it's not fair to put it upon the resident to maintain that. We have to trim those trees that the city wants to plant. Do the sidewalks, although now I think you're doing sidewalks. I'm going to run out of time. But please make sure when you want to change a neighborhood this drastically. And the last thing I'm going to say, I am sorry, but the look of impropriety on your family's business owning a lot, whether technically it's not illegal to do, I think the look of impropriety makes us not trust whatever you do. Josh.

Thank you. Michael Seltzer, your turn.

I have to follow that.

So here we go. I think it's a wonderful opportunity for the city of Hollywood. Somebody called me a few weeks ago and told me I should go take a drive there. I had no idea where it was. Told me the mayor was involved and something with a connection to the sewer and all this nonsense. Garbage. This is a wonderful opportunity for this city. And if you guys don't figure it out, shame on all of you. I sold 220 acres in West Melbourne right off of I-95. I brought the developer, paid 100,000 an acre, a 10-acre offer from the leading health department, health hospital in Melbourne. the community. They wanted to build doctor's offices and an emergency room. And he wanted a million dollars, but he paid yesterday for $100,000. And they took a walk. For five years, it sat vacant, because the guy didn't have a catalyst to start the whole thing, because that would have brought other doctors, offices, publics, this or that, and the whole thing. And we should not make that mistake. All that being said, we should go after a hospital campus. We should go after an industrial campus, an office campus. or we should go, I can't read my writing, a university. God knows there's enough people moving to Florida today that we should take a step back and we should hire somebody, and I'm too old to get hired, and we should send them out to these places or these companies and see if we can find somebody that's interested in coming here and eat up 50, 40, 30 acres and move an entire operation here that creates jobs, creates taxes, and creates a business and something we can be proud of. The idiot mayor in St. Pete, who is going to lose the election because the guy's an idiot, I brought them 50 acres, 26 sellers. My time's almost running out. And the developer said, we should make this a museum center. Well, that's all I had to say. I was on a plane to Naples. I met Murano Glass. They wanted to come. I went to New York. I met the Hermitage people for the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. They wanted to come. But it wasn't good enough for this guy. I don't know what he was looking at. Now he's going to get kicked out in his ass. So the bottom line is there's 160 great acres there. Before we decide what we're going to do with it, we should explore a university, a hospital campus, and a company.

Thank you, Michael.

Good luck. Thank you.

All right. Let's hear from commissioners about the presentation, beginning with, of course, Commissioner Quintana.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to, first of all, just be grateful for the fact that we're having this conversation. I've got a long history with the neighborhood that is Washington Park. I've been participating in their homeowners association meetings for the past 12 years. and I live about five minutes away. So that was long before I was a city commissioner, and certainly since becoming one, I hear from residents and users of the industrial park on a regular basis. This actually, this conversation is happening because When George Keller was about to become our city manager, I asked him to drive out there with me to see what was going on in the industrial area and to better understand how it is that the conditions there were what they were for as long as they were without anybody ever saying anything about it. And so I am not going to talk long. I am just grateful to be able to hear what my colleagues think about this. And then I'll just say that my focus, there's so much information that this study has put out on the website that it can be really overwhelming. I mean, I've been chipping away at it for months now. And there are still parts of it that I haven't gotten to. But my comments are going to focus on the implementation matrix. and just a couple of thoughts I have about the sequence of things. But beyond that, I'll just be quiet and listen to what others think.

Thank you. Commissioner Hernandez. Thank you, Mayor.

I may not be so kind with all due respect to everyone who did it. Can somebody point out to me where this intersection is on the neighborhood? And that's the problem that we have. Hypothetical, it's not reality. And like I said, I'm not going to be so kind because we're trying to fix a problem and all I have is ideas. And the idea doesn't say you need to do this there, you need to do this there. These are all hypothetical. And let me finish before you say anything. This is beautiful. So anyone that looks at this that says, oh, wow, they're going to fix this problem. And then you look at the reality of what's there on the ground. There is no room. There is no intersection like this in that neighborhood. So that's what I see as a problem is everything you're saying in your report, it's correct. Where is the ability to fit that with the constraint that the area has? That's missing, unless you can correct me if I'm wrong, which I'd love to be able to do that because that would fix the problem. But the constraints that we have in that neighborhood, we have businesses that are overrun because of the vehicles that they have because of the trade that they have. It doesn't address that. One way, yes, it would solve some of the problem. It doesn't address how we're going to get parking. I look at this easily in that picture. It's a five-foot, six-foot sidewalk. I see green space, and then I see parking on the other side. I see parking on the other side and a sidewalk. We don't have enough right of way to do anything like that. So please enlighten me if you don't mind. And the reason that I like to be able to be enlightened is because I have another area just north of Johnson Street on the east side of 21st Avenue that would be able to be helped by something like this if we have an innovative way of doing it. But right now, just even this picture right here, Tell me where this is in order to be able to get something like that done. I would love to hear.

So these two reflect the existing right-of-way. And what we did is that we took existing conditions, and we, instead of being specific on a particular intersection, we took conditions, existing conditions for multiple ones. So if you see, for example, there, and then we have another example.

OK, now go back to that one, because I know you used it. I'll wait till you get there. That one.

That's the long-term vision.

The vision. Where is that in a section?

That, well, like I said, this is a compilation. We did respect, we did show the existing right of way of all, most of the east-west streets are 50 foot right of way. So that does reflect the 50 foot right of way. And it does show existing conditions that we saw in different locations with suggested implementations and improvements that can be done at different places. Our study does suggest to conduct a proper study specifically for each street, determining what the street and what priorities they need and what improvements can be done in the ground. Right now, our studies suggest some ideas for improvements, but it's not specific to a specific intersection or location. It just suggests specific recommendations for improvements.

I understand that. And I can tell you that before we had to study and before we actually went and got the comments from everybody in the area and the residents and people at large, we knew that. We knew that those issues need to be addressed. What we were looking for, at least from my perspective, is how can... And by the way, this is not an attack on you or the company. We needed this. But what we're looking for is clear light of what needs to be done where. How to achieve that, it would be up to us. But we don't have that information because, please, let's go back to the other one. Yes, sorry.

But let's go back to the other one.

We have specific examples on page 48 of the full report that do show each one of the identified street types that we defined. And we do have... examples of each one of them it's like I meant like I said it's not specific to like a specific intersection but it does guide you to improvements to B plus streets which are sorry so to B plus streets the short term midterm and long term how they can build up

It has examples of... You rehashed the presentation. I got it. I saw it. And I agree with your presentation. I'm just saying... You're correct, Commissioner. And all we're asking is for something how to resolve the problems that we currently have. The presentation addresses the issues, addresses what can be done. But where can we do it?

The intent of the master plan study was not to, and I used the word site specific, it's probably the not exact right term, but it's not to give specific details on how to solve each of the items identified in the matrix. It's to pull together a holistic matrix of everything that has to be done, and then staff will move forward with each of those items. The intent of the master plan wasn't to say, this should be 50 feet, 2 feet, 5 feet. It was identifying all of the collective risks, visions, and way to move them forward holistically for the area at once. Because we know that we've tried some individual items out there to address some of the concerns. And independently, those items have not worked.

And I understand that. And I get it. And I'm not trying, like I said, I'm not bashing with the information you're bringing forward because it's for it. But I'm going to give you an example of what I would be looking for. If you give an engineer a space and you tell them, I need to be able to put this here, they draw up and they engineer a way to be able to put whatever it is that you need in that space. which is I thought that what we were looking to do, we have a constraint in an area because of the business and the quality of business or the type of business that are there. And yes, you have brought up a study that says these are all the problems that are wrong, these are all the problems how to fix it. But it doesn't tell us how to fix it. That's correct. And so my point is, I thought that the study would be to be able to tell us how to fix it. We have very smart individuals who work for the city that know that that area was a problem. The whole elected body knew that the area was a problem. We all knew what we would like to see. This is what we got here. How do we see that? That's what's missing here. So we spend all kinds of money for something that we already know. That's how I see it. Again, we need to be able to be site-specific as to what we can do in certain areas. It talked about gravel lots. Yes, I understand that gravel lots currently are illegal. We don't allow them. Maybe we can do asphalt millings. Where can we identify one? Because one of the things that we would like to do from the commission, and I'm speaking from the commission, and please correct me if I'm wrong here, is to be able to identify areas where we can improve that particular district. And that means if there's a particular corner that it's empty or a lot that it's empty somewhere, it could be identified. And maybe on a private setting, this lot may need to be purchased for the city for parking for the people that work in that area so that everybody can park there. And this way, maybe the parking department can go purchase that and charge those individuals a work there to be able to park in that light. Those are the ideas that I thought that this study was going to be able to bring back to us, not something that we already recognize. And like I said, no disrespect, you guys were given a task and you brought up a task, and I get it. And it may be more cumbersome than what you guys have been paid because this is tedious in nature. You're going to have to go block by block, business by block, and identify what needs to be done. And that may be our job to do with staff. Overall, I love what I saw. What it's disappointing is the fact that you have pictures that some of the residents are looking up, oh, that's what it's going to look like. And there's no way to get that picture because we don't have the space in the roadway. Even though we may have 50 feet, we may have 50 feet of right-of-way, which is 10 feet of swell on each side. You have the road that is 12 and a half feet or something like that. So you may have the space, but you don't have the space to draw to do what it's actually there. Overall, I love the presentation. I think the ideas are great. But how do we get there is the part that I would like to hear.

And that was on the end where Cameron summarized our action items. Staff will be putting together those action items collectively and bringing those individual tasks forward.

And what I'd like to see more of is maybe working with engineering as well to identify which roads, which streets you would like to see to be one way. Because in order to alleviate some of the issues that we have there is going to be the design of the road to have where they're going. And also working with code enforcement to do the enforcement that it's needed. Because some of the residents that are there, they have to traverse through there, are going insane because they can't do it. Because some of the operators don't care. They park in the middle of the road. And then there's some business owners that are related with tow truck companies. They tell you right on the wall, no parking here. And if you park on their swell, which is public property, and they're not paying for it, within three minutes, you have a tow truck there trying to tow your car. No? Lived it? I've seen it. So these are the things that we love to be able to fix. And like I said, This is the area that was picked first, but there's an area just north of Johnson Street, east of 21st Avenue in my district that has very similar problems. So whatever we learn here, we would try to implement there in the business sector. I'm trying to do something similar on the south side of Jackson Street in downtown, Parkside, and you guys are helping me with that, and I'm grateful for it. In order to try to one-way and generate more parking, we're all learning on this thing. But I see beautiful pictures, and I say, well, how did we get there? And I just can't see that mentally.

And that is one of our short-term items that we'll be working on so we could program it, fund it, and prioritize and program the projects within the staff workloads and tasks.

And by the way, for the comments whether the mayor's family owns property there or not, I don't think that unless they own 90% or more than 50% of the property there, it's relevant. I think that we have a problem in a business district that needs to be addressed. so whatever it takes to address it i'm in support to do that and that may be why i'm coming off a little harsh and critical because i want to make sure that that area survives and thrives because i see the commercial areas in the city hollywood has been minimized and minimized making way for residential and the business people in the city of hollywood don't have a place to go and they need to have a place to go and they need to have a place to operate And the better we can do it, the better business that they will have, and in the long term, the better tax base that the city of Hollywood has. Motion to approve.

This is just a presentation, but I don't know if you know we're asking for a motion That staff will work forward with the short-term medium and long-range items like the ones you've discussed I move to approve it in that way we should work with budget and departments Second it for the record.

Okay vice mayor Clary.

Sorry not that I wouldn't but I just don't want to take credit for something I didn't do So I agree with part of what Commissioner Hernandez had brought up. I didn't see some of the things that I was expecting to see in this report. Maybe I just missed it. Maybe I was... But I thought we were going to... improve this industrial area through change in zoning and abandonment of uses but I didn't see ideas on different zoning changes and stuff like that in the presentation Was I expecting something we didn't have?

One of the long-term items is to evaluate the land use and zoning for some of those areas. But we have to start somewhere. And right now, we were looking to start on the short-term immediate wins that we've identified in the task list, which is starting to get excitement around the area, visioning, bringing the businesses. together more so that we're bringing placemaking and identification to the area and also looking at the street hierarchy, working within the existing pavement boundaries to identify if there could be one way if additional on-street parking can be captured. Long term would be, do we need to look at the land use, the zoning? Do we need to look at those other items and work outside of the existing paved asphalt?

But we're looking to improve.

Specific recommendations on rezone from this to that, that is not in there. And that was not what the intent of this was. So I'm not an urban planner.

But I thought that we should be adjusting the uses before we start to come up with one-way streets or how much more parking we need. Long term, as you put it, for zoning changes requires long term. It requires abandonment of uses. So the sooner we do that, the sooner we get the change in uses. And then we can work on the one weighing of streets and additional green spaces and additional parking. Because people could speculate and start buying properties, as has been alluded to. based on the current zoning and current land uses. And then we are faced with Burt Harris. If we are improving the neighborhood, stimulating interest in the area and speculators, and then we change zoning, and we're stuck with the zoning that we have now instead of the zoning that we want. So while I don't have a problem with approving this today, I think we need to bring back zoning and land use changes as soon as possible before we start losing the opportunity to get those zoning and land use changes. Unless you could explain to me why I'm wrong, which I'm perfectly acceptable.

Commissioner, thank you. And yes, it is pretty rare that we don't touch zoning. The reason why you don't see it specifically there is because you already had a very well-written economic study previous to this. And with the help of our economists, we also saw how important this area is as an economic engine for both the city and the county. So what we did is we established a long-term vision that would allow for the study of the land use evolution, but building on the success that you currently have and seeing how things trickle over time. Because changing land use right now would have potentially, as you alluded to, a negative effect on both the land values and potentially having businesses go out of business. And I'll tell you, I promised that I wouldn't bring it up, but I worked on the master plan for Wynwood. And I can tell you there's a lot of successes there. But there's a lot of things that happened very rapidly that we could not foresee. One of the things that we wanted to make sure with this project is that we would protect through land use and through a long-term evolution of land use and implementation of infrastructure over time, the protection of your businesses, and the evolution of the businesses themselves, but building on what they are today and seeing how they can evolve slowly and in a healthy way. Does that answer your question? I don't want to mislead you, first of all. And number two, I believe, working with your staff, that what the report does, it establishes something in a very careful and very well-thought manner for that evolution of your uses. And I'll do one more. Yes, we could have been more specific with the right of way and the areas and the distances. Yes, we could have proposed zoning changes. I love your comment on, well, if you ask an engineer how to do something, they'll give you the very specifics. Are you an engineer? No. No. Well, and you're absolutely right. They might have. The thing is, when you ask an engineer to find a recipient for water, they'll give you the most efficient thing. And it'll probably be something cylindrical. What this project does, it begins to try to understand, what are you using the water for? What options do you have? How does that recipient fit within the context of Hollywood? So yes, you could have gone over the first step of understanding why. And yes, you could have gotten all those answers. And yes, you could have gotten all the zoning changes that we could potentially propose. Because trust me, I could propose a bunch of those. But first, you needed to understand. And first, we needed to establish what was needed and give you a path forward that then your staff can take little by little carefully and understanding what the both context and reality of the time are and and again I Yes, we have a lot of ideas on how to change those roads and yes, I can imagine here, you know many other things but I think that what we've put forward for you is is a menu of options and a path forward that you can work with your staff, not with us necessarily, but with your staff, and take it apart and ensure that whatever steps you take are very meaningful and they approach the problem that you have in front of you, not necessarily an overhaul of the whole thing. Hope that answers your question.

I am not an engineer. But my daughter is a mechanical and an aerospace engineer. And some of the questions that you talked about, an engineer may give you where the space goes, they actually look at first what that space is going to do and what they're installing in there is going to help to make that happen. So they are very thorough when it comes to that. So I try not to argue with my daughter because of just that. So, but yes.

And I have nothing against the engineers.

He takes it out on us.

It's nothing against the engineers. It's just that we came at this with the guidance and help of your staff from 30,000 feet, right? And I think that's the right approach. You look at it from the big picture and try to be holistic, and then help you begin to narrow things down to the solution that you need. That was the purpose of the project.

So I'm going to finish with just a couple more points. Anybody can?

answer if you're available.

But I love the idea of one-waying and creating some diagonal parking along these streets because that will cure some of the parking issue. It doesn't cure the flooding issue. And what I'm going to propose is going to be expensive, but Can we do somewhat like the downtown area on these streets if we one-way them and do paver parking so that you have that permeable area? And then we pay for it through creating a CDD? Or turf block, but you know. I'm going to reiterate, I don't agree with gravel parking anywhere. I think it's just, it's going to not improve the aesthetics of a neighborhood by allowing gravel parking. But can we do, the city attorney, can we create a CDD or do we need voting by the property owners or... I mean, we didn't do it for, we did a voluntary vote for the North Emerald Hills Safety Improvement District. Like, we did the voting just so that we can get shade for making a decision. But don't we have the ability to create a CDD or some kind of improvement district for Washington Park Industrial Area?

We're very happy to look into that and let you know what we're able to find. I'm happy to have my office look into that. You don't need support. We'll look into it. OK.

Thank you. And that's it. Thank you.

So Damaris, the way in which the discussion is going on with the city commission, and they're talking about concepts, and they've gone beyond the envelope of this particular master plan presentation, even though I'm not required to abstain from voting on this, I think I just want to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. And I'm going to just step down. I'll pass it to Vice Mayor to complete the item. And this way, they can have their discussion, because they're going beyond just a vision plan. And so I'd feel more comfortable just erring on the side

Absolutely the appearance of any conflict allows you to abstain. Thank you Oh Lord have mercy exited the meeting

Yeah.

Thank you. You're on.

I got it.

Much of what I was going to say, Commissioner Hernandez said. I agree very much that I think it looks good.

I think it provides direction.

I guess my wish or my disappointment is that we don't have something today to say yes for the next step. I mean, we're going to approve this, it sounds like, but... Is there money that you need? Is there more direction that you need? I feel like these surrounding residents have been living with unacceptable conditions for decades, and we should be doing more faster.

And so this is the exact, this is the kind of the uncomfortable part here is we haven't done master planning in a little while. And so the intent of this is to identify the items that we need to work together to program within the departments, whether it's funding, staffing, or just within our workload to bring them forward. So what we have on the screen now is our four next steps where we're going to start to move the short-term recommendations forward and then evaluating some of the medium and long range. The intent of this isn't to, there's not going to be change overnight. But the intent is, how do we have change over time so that we start to see tangible results? And what are the quickest, fastest items we could do? And that is what has been identified and laid out in the implementation matrix. So we will be coming back to you with funding and prioritizing and putting those together.

OK. And I understand that your department has been extraordinarily busy. So a concern is, and I don't want this to sound disrespectful for any master plan that's ever come through, but we have a lot of plans. We have a lot of plans that don't get implemented. This one I think it sounds like and we'll see how the vote goes But it sounds like we're all in favor of this is a good thing, but it has to start happening and then my only other comment is is code and I think that much of the predicament that this community and this area finds itself in is over a very long number of years and there has been lax code enforcement. And so things that are not allowed have been allowed to the point that we're afraid to not allow them anymore. I'm not an expert in the neighborhood, but that's what it feels like. Like people just abuse the situation because it's never been forcefully enforced. And so I think that the one thing that we can do today is not put these businesses out of business with enforcement, but come... to some agreement with the business owners that we're going to enforce things. I mean, I only hear about residents that can't get through these streets. And they're concerned that emergency vehicles can't get through these streets. I mean, these are real worries, right? If somebody is trying to get their kid to school or get their kid to the doctor and the streets are blocked, I mean, we're not doing our job as a city. So I think I appreciate what Andrea is saying about starting on this. But in the meantime, we have to come up with some enforcement that allows the businesses to operate and allows the residents to live peacefully and successfully, to be able to get where they need to go without the concern. Like I said, I'm not an expert in the area, but the one thing I hear about are these blocked streets, business owners not giving any care to the residents that surround it, feeling like they have the priority over these streets versus the residents, when really, you know, the residents are very, very important and their concerns have to be addressed. So that's my request, I guess, Jovan, is to maybe have some sort of meeting with these businesses and say, this is what we're doing. And we're going to really enforce this now in between when our planning department keeps us moving through these next steps. And until then, the burden is really on code to keep the residents safe in this area. So that's it for me.

Thank you. Next in the queue is Commissioner Quintana.

I was actually sticking to what was in the plan. So thank you for all of those of you who have come up with ideas about how to fund the future. And I was really focusing much more on the short-term and mid-term actions that are in the implementation matrix. So that said, to the conversation about code, believe me, Roger and I speak every day. I don't know how else I can say how much was spent on the sidewalks that are on the linear park on State Road 7 on FDOT that is currently being used by the car dealerships. to drive their cars over the landscaping and onto the sidewalks and then taking pictures from State Road 7 to sell their cars. And so I want our small businesses to continue to operate. The community, the surrounding community, does not want to lose its identity as a working class community. They want to continue to have blue collar workers be able to be in the Washington Park community. They don't want that to change, nor do I. What I was seeking was coexistence. mutual respect between the heavy auto uses that are going on in the industrial park and The other business types that are in there I'm talking about business-to-business mutual respect that does not currently exist and then certainly the big trucks and that come through delivering the vehicles from the dealerships that drive through the residential neighborhoods that no sooner does Joseph Kroll's department patch up a road that within two months, big holes are there again because you've got these huge trucks that are using them daily for delivery of vehicles. I was just looking for a way that we could have mutual respect happen within that industrial area. And I also want to then point back to what's in the matrix. It seems to me like the most intractable parts of this challenge. So this area was unincorporated Broward until 1963, when Hollywood then took on the area. What was there before was a trailer park. And it took away housing, but then became industrial and commercial use. This has been this way for an awfully long time, since 1963. And if this was an easy to solve problem, I would think by now somebody would have solved it. It's an intractable problem. The parts that are most difficult are in those three central blocks. If you could bring the map back up, guys, that has the hierarchy of streets. The interior part, it seems to me like the most challenging part. The thing about painting the facades, all the stuff that's in the short term under vision and identity, none of it would cost anything in addition. And I know that that's part of what staff took into consideration, is what can we do without money to get it going? And I think that's all fine and dandy. I kind of get the sense that unless the property owners there take an interest in improving their facades and having a cleaner environment, it isn't going to happen. And so I'm kind of de-emphasizing all that part, because obviously they haven't done it yet. And it's not like they're not making money, that they could clean up their properties as it stands, but they haven't done it yet. I'm de-emphasizing all of that. Of your vision and identity recommendations, the one that I think we should follow through on is manage change at the edges, not the core. So there's an easy win if you focus on 56th Avenue, on Washington Street, on State Road 7 and Pembroke Road as a first step. What can we do about improving that outside core, how that looks? That's where I think we could get some quick wins. It's still going to be ugly in the middle unless we get property owners in there to care. but at least the outside core won't look so bad. I would like to suggest in the section that says street design, mobility, and infrastructure, I would like to see us focus on, you already said it, adopting the street hierarchy framework and considering initiating a traffic study to assess limiting truck and commercial vehicle traffic on residential roads. I'd like to move from midterm to short term, where it says, develop a comprehensive street condition and needs assessment so that you can prioritize the repair and repaving of residential streets. Again, I mean, Joseph is patching them, but we're not actually repaving them. And I guess we'll see how long they last with the big trucks driving over them. if we spend the money on that. But I'd like to move that into short term because those roads are in terrible condition. Where it says, prioritize sidewalk improvements and repair, referencing the proposed street hierarchy. So we'd be putting sidewalks in repair, emphasizing it on the four green areas in the map. I don't know that it's worth trying to fix sidewalks in the interior core right now when all the cars are parked over the sidewalks. and anything and everything else they can park over. So again, I'm not even touching the long term. I was just focusing on the short term and midterm so you guys could know where to get started. We're under street design and mobility infrastructure again. Please move to short term developing and adopting strategies to increase water permeability in the public right of way. So this is a prone to flooding area. When public utilities did the sewer and new water lines, there was not really a vision to improve the drainage. And because of all of the hoopla that was raised, they somehow managed to improve some areas of drainage in there. But it's still really bad. I go through there at least three times a week. And the flooding is, I mean, I have video. I'm not going to show it. But it's like waves. in a place with heavy auto uses, where there are auto chemicals. So I think that proper drainage should be a priority. So whatever we can do in the places where we know the water puddles, I think that should be a priority. And then I guess I'll stop with that, because wait, is there another one? Yeah, I made reference to it this morning. This is the last thing I'll say. I made reference to it this morning. If we can somehow encourage in these outer core the things like maker spaces, where people are manufacturing, making something. It can be in a small setting, but someplace where people can I know of places where they have something that's called DIY repair clinics so that people could come to a storefront and learn how to repair a lamp, learn how to repair a sewing machine. learn what they can do to change their own oil, perhaps even. So things that would encourage that identity as a blue collar, hands-on kind of environment. But we could create businesses that are consistent with that in the outer core. So I'll stop. I don't want to monopolize the conversation. But again, I want to say I'm grateful that we're even thinking about this, because what I was told when I first brought this up, Edelma, this will never change. It's been like this for decades. Nobody's figured out a way to do it. It's going to take a long time. I said, but if we never start, we never will. And if you just say it's never going to change and throw up your hands and say forget it, that's how we got to where we are now. So I'm not expecting it to be overnight. I don't want to throw any business owners into a panic. I don't want to throw the neighborhood around it into a panic that they're getting gentrified and kicked out of their neighborhood. I don't want that to happen. But I do want us to know that it doesn't have to be this way. there are other ways that we can do this. And we should not give up on the opportunity. I'll stop. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Quintana. It's your district, so you should speak up about it. So no one is monopolizing your time. If you have more to say, go for it. Thank you. I'm good for now. So I was in the queue, but I'm going to go ahead and take the privilege. I know that Commissioner Hernandez is up to speak after. But I think a lot of... No, Kevin? I'm done. He's done. So I think that we have talked about in a micro vision years about this area. Primarily, as Commissioner Shuham said, code, code, code, because that seems to be the biggest issue. And we got nowhere. For a long time, it was an unsafe area. It was a police haven, if I'm not mistaken, to go in there because there were a lot of not so friendly usages going on in that area as well. So it was almost like a micro type of addressing and starting just with code. But this, to me, is a macro because it shows a vision. It shows a way that we can get where we need to be. My only critique, I guess, would be, and not disrespectfully, but we have so much advancement with AI and technology that if you go back to the slides that you showed the streets, and it reminds me of, I'm kind of going backwards, but you bring it forward, right? You have this, what it is now. You have an overlay to show what the future will look like. So it's like the process. So you see where it is now, like a current time photo. and then what it could be with an overlay showing the underneath and then vibrant appearance of how that would be. Because it's very hard if you're not a picture, like I need to see it, to believe it. And right now, this is wonderful ideas, but it's not reality for me. That would be my only suggestion. And it's great for the public to see what the future could bring. Don't think we want to push out the small businesses in that area either it's very important that we actually have the pips and the hips and the ships and all the Type of projects that we have to help generate these businesses to give them an opportunity to enhance their businesses make them more Curbside appeal I think that that's an opportunity that we can seek don't we have that right now? Available and maybe we have to do Some outreach and and really get them involved to make sure that the improvements are made as well But I think that there is light at the end of the tunnel I think that this is a really great start and I think that this is something we've needed for a while So thank you Commissioner Quintana for being the squeaky wheel which we always say is so important But now we have to put the rubber to the road and make sure that we move it forward. And so I know that there's a motion on the floor. I'm going to go ahead and allow Commissioner Hernandez and then Commissioner Gruber. And I guess we'll go ahead and take a vote. Commissioner Hernandez.

There one more okay, thank you Thank You vice mayor actually it the door has been open for us to look at the outer versus the inner as a business owner and someone who Don't have any property in this particular area. I can tell you that my idea is completely contradicting to yours I Rather than to eliminate the business and have the residential thrive, give the people from the residential the ability to make money out of their property and make that a business district so that you don't have both. You said that you would rather focus on the Main Street and the outer cores.

As a start.

As a start. I understand. It won't work that way because, for example, Pembroke Road, I've been after the department for years to do something to change the zoning of Pembroke Road. Pembroke Road has mostly 25-foot lots, and then you have to amass so many of them. Then you don't have the depth to be able to have any business that can sustain because it doesn't have the ability to create the parking necessary for the business that you have there. So you have... a conflict no matter what you do now if you take a block behind that some of the residential block and you create a buffer then you can have a larger business doing on pembroke road similar to what pembroke west park has done they've actually rezoned two blocks south of pembroke road to be commercial in nature in order for them to be able to allow larger development to take place. It's not anywhere near where they want to go, but they've taken the step zoning-wise to be able to do it. This way, there's a buffer before it gets into the residential. In this particular district, you have a great deal of commercial that has taken over some of the residential. And I can tell you by firsthand experience what happened with the Regional Activity Center with Iraq that took place on east of 21st Avenue, west of Federal Highway, where you had a mixture of both. When we rezone all of that to a regional activity center, if you had a commercial use that you were using and you sold it and you stopped using it for that for more than three months, you lose your ability to do that, similar to 24th Avenue. And it created a stagnation of some of those lots because people didn't pay the money that they paid for commercial, supposedly, and then find out that it was residential. We have worked through some of those kinks, but working on a one-to-one basis is time-consuming, painful for both, for the property owner and the staff in order to be able to achieve something. So if we're looking to see what the long-term vision is of that particular area with the density that you have on commercial uses, I would say I would rather have, since the shrinking demand the commercial properties in the city hollywood's have shrunk particularly with the regional activity center i would venture to say i would rather see this as a commercial district and the properties that are residential in nature right now and the people have the ability to sell cash in on a lot higher value Those properties, let's draw up what we really want to see with the proper parking, with the proper drainage, and a proper business model so them can actually thrive. And then we can work backwards on this one that we have, which is smaller property, and they're actually abusing their stand, if you would, because they're parking in the middle of the road. And if you've been there, as I have, when a flatbed tow truck is unloading two cars because they got one on top and one on the back, and you tell them, hey, I've got to get around you, whatever you would want to hear from a sailor, you would hear from these people. I have. And so have I. So my point is, and then you have to test your patience. So we need to address that, and code and police, because I wouldn't suggest just to send a code officer out there without having the police nearby, because those people get nasty. And yes, the truck driver may have the ability for 15 minutes to do this, but sometimes they're really smart. They park right next to the other guy who is on the other side of the street, and they block the road. And when they're unloading cars and they're blocking the road, God forbid that any emergency vehicle has to go through there. It ain't happening without them having to move that, and that's time that it takes away from somebody's potential life-threatening situation. So we need to address this, but I think that the larger picture is, I love what they presented, but we as a commission need to address this. Do we really want to have a residential area in the middle of a commercial district that will be in conflict for years and years to come, or do we want to change this to a commercial district? And that's more than the presentation that it's here, but that's the long-term vision as to what we want to do. And if you want Pembroke Road along that area to thrive, we need to be able to change the zoning, because I've been here since 1974, and even since back then, the city of Hollywood had a growth management department. That's what it was called, because we're landlocked. We can't grow anymore. And nobody was willing to take that on. At some point, we have to if we want the city or that particular area to prosper. Otherwise, you're encouraging the same thing to happen. And no matter what we do with the streets, no matter what we do with code, no matter what we do with those businesses, that we still live in conflict with those residential areas. That's how I see it, and I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I think we need to maybe look at it from a different perspective. Allow this to take place, and then bring it back to us and see what we really want to do with the whole district, with the whole area. Because basically from 56th Avenue... 56th Avenue and Washington Street, 441 Pembroke Road, that box right there, that area right there is what we're talking about. And if you look at it and you count, there's a heck of a lot more businesses and business-owned areas and properties than there are residential. Just food for thought, something to talk about.

So that was my question, Andre, is how many residential properties are within that area. Absolutely. I asked her that, but I'm not sure I understood the answer because I didn't think it was very much.

Let's go ahead and stay in the queue and give Commissioner Weber and then we can come back to you.

That's fine. You're absolutely right. Thank you.

Okay, Commissioner Gruber, go ahead.

Thank you. I was under the understanding. So I went to one of the outreach meetings. I think, Commissioner Quintana, you were there with me. It got really heated. I mean, the residents, you know, they're dealing with what they're dealing with, with the impact of the businesses, especially a lot of the automotive ones that are that are taking up the streets and whatnot. But the business owners were there too, passionate about their family-owned business with their kids at the meeting. So it's one of those unique situations where you have a residential neighborhood kind of embedded in this industrial commercial area. And I guess the challenge is to figure out a way for it to be a cohesive environment you know, kind of marriage over there. I was under the understanding that code is cracked down pretty hard. I know personally I've gotten calls from business owners there that they said, you know, they've been parking in the swale for years, they have automotive, and all of a sudden they're getting towed, they're getting violations, and what's going on? So I thought we were kind of already... We've already on step one of doing that. Has that improved the situation there? I don't know which, who on staff would be able to answer that question. Mr.

Chair, I could answer that question.

Yeah.

So for the last three or four years, you know, we have been cracking down on the Washington Park area between code parking and the police department basically. So, you know, we have made a tremendous progress in our opinion.

You know, every comment that the commission has made is accurate where there is every use within that area.

And my apologies, I also forgot, Hollywood Fire also has gone out there with us also. In the last six months, we have taken a different approach where we did put down some lines to kind of encourage folks to park within the lines, have them keep outside the lines. And in addition to, we recognize that some of the tenants there are the ones that are causing some of the issues, basically. So we try to find a different way to encourage those tenants to behave appropriately. And in addition to working with HPD, I believe that we're changing some habits out there. But again, there are a few of them that are not complying so well, and we have to change our tactics. So I believe with this study, it is a combination of efforts and approach that we kind of have to do out there in that area. It is a systematic area that's been there for decades. I believe the team that's here now at the city are the right team to be able to tackle this systematic issue that's been there basically. So I believe the study does identify some short-term plans, some long-term plans. And with the team that's all behind me, I think we're all trying to work towards that short-term plan while the long-term plan vision is being worked out.

Right. I like to hear that, that, you know, you can do you can enforce so much, but it is also to educate and then to meet with business owners like this specific business owner. He's 30, 40 years. He's been in business. He's always parked a few cars on this wheel, not in the road. And then all of a sudden, out of the blue, you know, have it where you can't park there. And I get it. You were never supposed to.

But with these these business, these businesses.

had their businesses succeeding that way and that's not to say parking in the middle of the road so I like the fact that we're engaging with them it seems to be moving in the right direction so I would hate to give there's did we say 458 businesses there and almost 2,000 employees so a lot of them are small businesses I wouldn't want to change use I would you know I wouldn't want to give anyone the impression that we're gonna put them out of business these are the small business the backbone of our city we want we want these these small businesses succeed. I also would like to try to be able to keep the residents there. So I think on a long term, I like the vision. And in a short term, it sounds like we're moving in the right direction from what you just said, Javon.

So I'm in favor of this.

It is a work in progress.

It's a work in progress. You've got to change some really old habits and business models that rely on those habits. So we've got to be creative to figure out how we can help them succeed. Yes.

Yes. So I'm just kind of hearing the discussion amongst the commission. And as you said, this area didn't develop to this point overnight. It took a long time to get here. And it's going to take a little while to reestablish the vision and move it forward. I think what I'm hearing is there is support for about Six of the items to be reprioritized so that staff now knows what we need to focus on and then the last item was Correct, correct. Yes, because the motion was made there was some discussion, but it sounds like you know the focus on The priorities back up The focus was to manage the edges, to focus on that area and de-emphasize a little bit of the vision and the identity, and to look at the edges in terms of the zoning and what could be done there. It was to look at the street design and move that up in terms of looking at the water permeability. And it was to prioritize some of the sidewalk on the four green areas on the outer edges. look at the street conditions and needs assessment, the framework, the traffic study for the mobility. And I think that will give staff the ability to look at programming, look at funding, and see what things we can also do without that to start to move some of these initiatives forward. I understand it's not an easy conversation for this, but we understand the direction that it sounds like where we're going for this. And that's exactly what we needed here today.

Commissioner shoe him It's OK. I'll take it. I'm doing it. Sorry. Two things at once.

So that was my exact question. So there was a motion. Commissioner Quintana had.

There was a motion and a second to approve it as is. And then it sounds like if you want to tweak to some of the things I've talked about, we will incorporate that into it so that we know where we're focusing and where we should be focusing our resources on.

So procedurally, what do we need to do to put those tweaks into the motion?

motion to amend the original motion would need to be done but it would have to be agreed upon by the person who made the original motion I'm gonna interrupt for one second and there was a late and if it's okay since the mayor had to step out because of the process I did watch some movement and there is a speaker card that is pertaining to this item if you guys are okay that will listen to that because it may add some light on to whatever we're discussing and that way we don't have to Yaron Gilay.

My name is Yaron Gilay. I own around 30 properties at that exact same pinpoint and location. these surveys or inquiries with the residents and the business owners, I have not got any notice of anything. And I'm there literally every day. And all my tenants have not got any communication with any companies to ask them any opinions. Again, I'm not to judge any companies that are doing this. But we as business owners and the property owners have a little say of opinion of what's going on. And the main issue here is not only the parking. It's the biggest issue. The drainage and the flooding, basically, if there's any customers coming to that area, they have nowhere to park. Usually it rains, I don't know, an hour during the day. And they park everywhere because they're not going to get into two-foot puddles. It's a disaster, starting from the flooding of that area. Then going into, again, people coming from out of the city, going into that little area. And what happens if they don't know the rules or regulations, if there's any enforcement in violations or fines to the specific people coming, not to the business owners or to the property owners, because the property owners basically, at the end of the day, have to work with the city people to basically comply and put everyone in order. But we as owners get hindered, get violations, instead of working with us hand to hand to solve the problem. And the problem is the drainage, the parking. And these third parties that are coming in, maybe huge signs for these truckers, no trucks coming through or huge violations to third parties because everything at the end of the day falls on the property owner. And it's not fair because we're trying to work with it. And again, no questions have been done to any property owners. And I know A lot of them, maybe around 60% of all the owners in the area, and they're all on my side. And none of them have been approached for any inquiries of what can we do to make things better in the area.

I have a question. Since you're here, you're saying that the parking issue that's in that area is mainly because of the flooding?

It's mostly about the flooding. There's no designated, I mean, again, the businesses comply because at the end of the day, the property owners tell them these are the regulations. And if it's a business that is out of norm and they're creating a havoc, me as a property owner, they're not my tenants anymore. But we're not responsible for third parties. And that's part of the city's reinforcement to protect us because at the end of the day, it falls back on us. The city should work more closely with the property owners on how to repair the issues. Our opinions, because we're on a daily basis there. They're not there. We are the ones that see it every day. So I guess our opinions matter on priority, because if there is any way to solve it, We can give opinions to.

So I don't know why you haven't been notified. I think we have a list of what companies, and we've had outreach. I don't know where the missing link is at, but I'm glad that you're here today.

I own seven properties, and within the seven, it's 47 companies. Within those seven companies, 40 properties in that exact same area.

Perfect.

Not even one letter did I get.

Don't leave, because we have people here that are going to speak.

Not even one letter, not even one phone call, zero.

Yeah.

I'm going to have you meet with code and the businesses. I mean, the leadership of the system.

Well, the code enforcement knows me very well, because I'm there and proactive to solve issues. But it isn't in a point where they're working directly with us to find a solution. It's there to hinder us, because at the end of the day, we have deep pockets. We're going to pay the fines. That's not working out.

Okay, thank you. I know he may call you up, but I have to say thank you and end the time. Okay, Commissioner Hernandez. Mayor Levy, you're in big trouble.

Thank you. Could you please come back up?

After this, Vice Mayor, could I just speak for a moment? I wanted to clarify the question on procedural. Sure.

You own seven properties and you have 40 tenants. Did I hear you correctly? Yes, exactly. Okay. And you said that nobody from code enforcement or the planning department has reached out to you as to what's going on in the area? No, they reach out when they give me violations.

I'm sorry. They reach out when they give me violations. It's not come, listen, how can we solve, what can we do? They're not, again, I don't...

I get that. Just for the brevity, just answer, just, you know, what have you. But so you said the planning department has not reached out to you to see how we could fix any of the problems.

No, no, no.

And the individuals that are doing the... Presentation did not reach out to you? No, sir.

And actually, one more thing. You have two or three dioramas there. And I identify exactly where they took those pictures. And they eliminated chunks of buildings for little parks. What's going to happen to the owners when they have these spots that they I'm just saying the diagrams don't reflect reality.

I have an issue with some of the drawings either, but here's a question that's something that I don't agree with you with. Okay. You said that the issue that the parking is because of the flooding, right?

No, as well. On top of that, as well.

No, no, no. If I understood you correctly and the Vice Mayor asked you a question. Not only that. I'm sorry.

No, no. Larry, refrain. Not only that.

that you said that the reason that parking is a problem is because of flooding. And I'm going to quote you. People don't want to go through two feet of water in a puddle to get to there. So this is South Florida, and it rains a lot. But you know what? There's a lot of sunny days. And I go by there two or three times a week. So I don't own property there. I don't live there. I don't have a business. But I'm very familiar with it. And even on those sunny days, parking is a huge issue. So you have 40 tenants. I'm not going to pick on you or your tenants. I don't know where they park their vehicles, but the problems that I see there is that the car operating businesses that are there use their vehicles designated parking spaces as storage.

That's incorrect. No, no, no. I'm not incorrect. You're right, 100%. I was just going to say, with all due respect. No, no, that's also a main issue, and you're 100% correct.

No, no, I'm just telling you what I see. So if you tell me otherwise. No, no, you're right. You are right. I believe my lying eyes. I believe what I see with my eyes.

100% correct.

If the problem is that those individuals using the designated parking for storage, quite frankly, if you have a customer, what do they expect that customer to park? So they don't foresee the forest for the trees. So some of the issues maybe is the tenant's own generated problem. And we're trying to fix that. I have solutions. Well, when it rises to this level, sometimes we just impose things. Right. They're abusing that. They're not leaving any spaces for their own customers to park, so their customers have to park on the street or the guy down the street. I go by there, and I see something that I can't believe the code allows, and that is I see property owners that keep their swell very nice, but they have railroad ties blocking for nobody to park on there. And that's not allowed, but you know what? They got fed up with fighting with everybody else. And some of the fights that take place on that thing, People take baseball bats. People take weapons out. People take anything out to protect their little turf. So when it rises to this level, we may have a disagreement up here as to how to fix it. But we all agree here. That it needs to be fixed. And so if the staff has not reached out to you, shame on us. But while you're here, they're going to talk to you and they're going to take your information and they're going to want to sit with you. Very good. And do not be surprised. Thank you. And do not be surprised if we ask you your properties and some of your tenants and see how we can bring those tenants into compliance so we can use that as an example.

And I appreciate you being here. Yes, sir.

But the key is you come here to communicate. We want to fix the problem. We want your business to be successful. You want your properties to continue to grow. But we also need to do it in a way that the guy down the street can do business as well. You're correct.

So I just want to say thank you so much.

Thank you.

coming up. I watched the little interaction.

Annie, thank you for encouraging him to speak. And I think that this was a good segue to creating a cohesive working environment and to succeed this area that Commissioner Kitana and all of us have strived to do for so long. So God bless you for being up here. Thank you. Don't leave without getting with the people. Of course.

And I'm going to get with Damaris and whatever amendment you may want to do regarding this. I'm in agreement with trying to change some of those things, but the key is one of those things in particular, which is the changing zoning, it's going to hold everything else up. So that's a concern that I have because, well, no, you said to work on the outer perimeters.

Well, no, if you're going to do anything about Pembroke Road, it's going to require changing the zoning because

What's currently there now, it's not fixable. So I want to ask you, before I accept the... Amendment here is are you looking to change the zoning to expand the commercial footprint or you want to keep Pembroke Road the way it is? If you look at Pembroke Road, half of the block is commercial and the other half behind it is residential. That doesn't work. If you don't want to address that, then I'm not going to support the amendment. If you want to address that, then I will support the amendment. I just want to talk to you before the amendment comes forward because I don't want to get staff to be into a quagmire. Well, what do they mean? What did not? I want to make sure that we do that. And look, sometimes if you want to make an anomaly, you got to break an egg. My point is, hang on a second, Vice Mayor. And my point is, I want to support what you're looking to do because I think it's the right thing. But in order for me to support it, you need to give a little bit and say, okay, you know, from Pembroke Road to the next block over, let's consider a zoning change. And yes, you may affect some of those residents, but you know what? Otherwise, you're going to continue to have what you have and your outer perimeter is not going to change. Sorry to put you on the spot, but this is...

I just want to say something, if I can, before you do that, because of past experiences. It's going to be challenging, and I think you need, before we make a decision on that, maybe we have to do community outreach.

Oh, no, no. The zoning goes with the community outreach. We're not voting for any of that right now. But my point is, would you consider that in order for that to take place? Because right now we're hypothetical here. And I think that's the reason why the mayor left is because we're going outside of the scope of the presentation.

I think it's a good idea.

And so my point is, if you consider something like that to talk to those individuals whenever they're ready for it, I don't want, if you don't do the zoning change on that particular block, I'm not interested because it's not going to change anything. Pembroke Road will continue to be the same thing for the next 40 years.

Commissioner, could I ask that if I understand that you're trying to figure out what the amendment might look like, and I think that it might be helpful to state on the record how you would frame the motion, and that way everybody knows exactly what it is they would be voting upon. Because sometimes we go back to the record afterwards, and I just want staff to know exactly what it is that you would like to.

I'm more than happy to do that after she answers me.

Go ahead. OK, I'm on. I'm on. OK. You're on. Yeah, I am thinking about the individuals that I know personally who live on the backside of Pembroke Road and that I would not want to make a decision like that without speaking to them first. So I mean, do we need to amend it? Go ahead, Andrea, please help me out.

So the item that we're talking about with regards to the zoning along Pembroke Road is actually one of the midterm items to look at. It sounds like in general, the commission has a consensus to move that up. to be looked at a little bit sooner than midterm. I think the parameters of exactly where the line falls for what that is needs to be evaluated as part of that request. The intent for today isn't to be drawing those lines. It's just to say, hey, we all agree. We want to look at the zoning along Pembroke Road and move that up a little bit further in the process.

You're so bright. And that's basically the solution.

So we hear you. Yes.

If you bring that towards the forefront, I'm okay with that because then we would deal with that. No, no, I'm serious. No, I understand. Then we would deal with that in...

Sooner rather, in shorter term than midterm. Yes. Yes. Okay.

Okay, so just to make sure that I'm... So I'm going to go ahead and rephrase my motion. And my motion is to adopt the conditions or the suggestions that Commissioner Quintana has made for that district as it was stated. And Andrea, since I know you were taking copious notes over there, can you tell us what that is? including the rezoning of the Pembroke Road to be moved from the midterm to the short term.

So it sounds like the commission. Andrea, just one second, though. Maybe you want to consult with them behind you because there seems to be some friction going on first before we.

Commissioner, also, it sounds like a possible solution here may be to keep the current. Oh, no. If you keep the current motion, but if the commission wanted to give direction as to the priorities within the. like how they would like staff to approach it, that's also another way to do it.

I want to see what they have, the notes they made, and if that's part of it, it should be okay. Yes.

Are you popped in?

Yeah. Okay, go ahead. Okay. We have a motion and a second on the floor. So anything happens now, we have to have either a motion to amend or we have to erase what's on the floor, which it's already on the floor. It belongs to the floor.

Yes.

So there has to be a motion to amend. It might be an amendment, though. Yeah. And just for clarification, my two cents is in addition to accepting the presentation today, I think that the motion would be – Whatever the terminology would be for zoning in progress, no? Or is that too severe? That's too drastic.

Can we just back up for one second here, just because I think that we're getting a little bit ahead. And it's very great, because that shows that there's general enthusiasm for looking at the recommendations of this study and trying to move things along. So that is obviously the purpose of a study is to then take action on it. So what we have before you is a study that you all are considering adopting, this study, this redevelopment program. What Commissioner Quintana has suggested is that there are several items that are in the midterm category of recommendations that she feels should be moved up to the near term, the short term recommendations. Am I correct? Correct. And so then there is a little discussion of the specifics of one of those items that relates to the rezoning of Pembroke Road. Absolutely what Andrea said. We are not rezoning Pembroke Road. We are not proposing any rezoning of Pembroke Road right now. What you would be doing is just taking some recommendations. The amended motion, if you all decide you would like to amend the motion, would be that you would be adopting the redevelopment program with an amendment amending it to move some of the midterm recommendations to near term recommendations and then specifying which ones you think are appropriate to do that.

So if I could, I think we should just vote on the motion that's on the floor without amendment because I think it muddies the waters and then at direction of the commission to look into priorities. So we're going to go ahead and just take the vote now if that's okay with everyone.

Can we just restate the motion?

Yes.

The motion was to approve the way it was.

To approve the way it is. I seconded the motion. And then once we take that vote, then we can redirect the conversation as direction for the staff to look into, and they can come back with us, which is the best fit needs based on our priorities. Sound good? Okay.

Hold on, and that's what the city attorney thinks we should do? Yes. That we shouldn't, okay, so we're going to give direction after this? Yes. Yes. As far as everything else, okay.

I think that's the cleanest way to do it, what the vice mayor suggested.

There we go. So do I do all in favor or do you have to roll call? So all in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? No. I want to vote on the amended version.

Now we're going to give direction.

You can vote no, and then we're going to come back now and give direction. Okay. And that's not going to be amendment. It's going to be direction of priorities, like you stated earlier, but that's not going to be in the motion to adopt this. Oh, okay. Yes.

Okay.

Okay, so motion passes 6-0. And now we can buzz in to add your priorities.

Now you can give the directions and we can support it.

There you go.

Okay.

Do I have to go back and read again? Absolutely.

And maybe the first one is we want to continue to work with code compliance and educate the businesses and everyone in the area. I think that sounds like an overarching first priority to continue to look at. And then the second one. I agree.

OK. One would be the outer perimeters. I think you had mentioned Commissioner Quintanilla.

Recommendation 1.6, manage change at edges.

Perfect. Thank you.

Recommendation 2.1, in street design and mobility, it states consider adopting a street hierarchy framework. to improve street function. I would like to change the recommendation 2.5, a traffic study to assess limiting truck and commercial vehicle traffic. I would like to move recommendation 2.7 from midterm to short term. It states, develop a comprehensive street condition and needs assessment to prioritize the repair and repaving of residential streets. I would like to move recommendation 2.8 from midterm to short term. Consider prioritizing sidewalk improvements and repair, referencing the proposed street hierarchy framework. And I'd like to move recommendation 2.13 from midterm to short term. It states, consider developing and adopting strategies to increase water permeability in the public right of way.

That should be number one.

And I believe that was all of the changes that I was hoping.

I'm already turned on, so I don't know.

You have to buzz in so I can see the queue.

Well, if I buzz in, you've got to get turned off, and this way everybody else is already on.

Commissioner Hernandez, go ahead.

Thank you. One of the ones you mentioned was 2.7, if I'm correct. If we could put the items here so we could see which one we're talking about. If you have the clicker, you can put those on so that we can all see it at the same time.

How is that? Oh, you passed it. It's really small.

Yeah, it's tiny.

No, we have them at the end, so a little bit larger in case we needed to go there.

Well, we're there.

Sorry. Do you want to just give us one minute?

Yes. I'm okay with most of those. There's one that I'm not quite sure of because if we decide to go a different route, then it would be a waste of time for the staff to be looking into that.

Is it 2.7? I believe so. So 2.7 says consider developing a comprehensive street condition and needs assessment to prioritize the repair and repaving of residential streets.

Correct. Because that only goes to the residential street when we need them all.

OK, so change it from residential to all.

Which is fine. I just want to be able to do something like that. And that shouldn't be a big deal. The implementation is expensive, but to have the information should not be a big deal. If you drive by, you can see where the potholes are. I just wanted to see that it wasn't just once.

So 2.7 changed to all and got it. So what wasn't mentioned, though, was the rezoning? The questioning about the rezoning.

The questioning about the rezoning, I believe that was 2.8. Consider prioritizing sidewalk improvements and repair, referring to the proposed street hierarchy framework. If I may, I don't want to make this any longer.

I just want to make a recommendation, having been through this several times with several municipalities. I would highly recommend that you let your planning department take a look at it all and come to you with some recommendations of what may change. The reason why I'm saying that is because some of these, the way that they are planned, they're kind of sequential and they have trickle effects. And so it would be beneficial, from what I've seen, to just let them... Propose something to you and then have a workshop with you.

I'm okay with that, but some of what Commissioner Quintana has mentioned, which is the prioritization of the Pembroke Road, I think that should be weighted on.

Level of hierarchy.

It should be something that the community needs to start talking about and giving her feedback as to what they would like to see. Some of this other stuff, the sidewalk, this is all staff is going to be recommending, and I'm sure that a workshop will come to us and discuss it. At the end of the day, I don't have a problem with all of that, except just to change the 2.7 to all of them. That's all. Because the same truck that is tearing up the residential street is tearing up the commercial street. And the one thing that you don't want to have is a truck that needs to go someplace that gets a citation because he's going someplace and somebody doesn't believe that he's going there. So in the truck, this is the reason why if you minimize the residential to commercial, then the residents are able to cash in on their property. And some may not want to sell, and I'm okay with that. But if you make it residential, then you are starting to infringe in the little commercial space that the City of Hollywood have. And City of Hollywood needs to have some commercial places for the small business.

Thank you. Hold on. Okay.

I support what you were doing. I think you need one more in order for the staff to be able to.

I support, too. The only thing I just want to add to that little bit of terminology, it's like the rack. They don't have to sell, but then they're the little house amongst the big sea, but they don't have to. It just creates some chaos that we've seen already with the rack adjustment. So you have three to support. You have direction. I think we can call it a day. The mayor can come back, and I'm out of the hot seat. Thank you. Thank you. Is he somewhere in the building, somewhere close? Hey.

All right.

All right. Let's take up. We have a 2 p.m. time certain item. Item 32 is just after 2 p.m. Let's go ahead with item 32. It's resolution of the City Commission of the City of Hollywood approving a loan commitment in the amount not to exceed $1.8 million in change consisting of $1.2 million in change in neighborhood stabilization program funds, $135,000 in home program funds, half a million in home program income funds for the redevelopment of the Hollywood Village affordable housing development into Hollywood Vista affordable housing development. This is from the Office of Housing and Community Development. Welcome Ryan Coote, the director. Definitely an exciting opportunity for a longtime derelict site. So go ahead, Ryan.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager, City Attorney. We have an opportunity today to take a development right now that is currently abandoned, an affordable housing development, and turn it into something that's going to bring tremendous value to the city. We are asking right now for the city to reinvest approximately $1.8 million in federal NSP, Neighbor Stabilization dollars, and home dollars into the redevelopment of the Hollywood Village into Hollywood Vista. Currently, the building is abandoned because it's unsafe, and it was abandoned. It was vacated by the Housing Authority and our city building department. The initial loan that was given to the Housing Authority back in 2010 included a $2.5 million loan, which is $1 million in NSP dollars, $870,000 in NSP, and $135,000 in home dollars for the acquisition of the property back in 2010. For about approximately 12 years, it fulfilled its commitment to the loan by providing affordable housing for residents that were 50% and below of area median income. Unfortunately, because these dollars come with rent restrictions, the rents were really low. It's an older building that was built in 1967. The cost of maintenance repairs with the low rents led to the building falling to disrepair. And over a period of time, the building deteriorated over a period of time. The Housing Authority took several steps to do assessments to determine what it will cost to redevelop this property. In 2001, they hired a company that conducted a thorough assessment to determine what the cost of rehabilitation was. At the time, it was deemed unfeasible to rehabilitate this building because of the cost it would take. At that time, they went through several steps, several different iterations. And what happened was they hired a company that relocated the residents that were there within HUD guidelines into other areas. And the building was subsequently closed in 2023 once the building was officially vacated. What we're asking, the proposed development brings new life to a structure right now that is currently underutilized because it's not being utilized for its intended services. So technically speaking, we are technically out of compliance because of HUD regulations. We are still within the 20-year covenant for those HUD dollars that are invested in the property, and it's not being used for its intended purpose. So right now, we need to make a decision to move forward by reinvesting these dollars that are already tied to the project and adding more money so they can achieve this. The proposed development will include eight stories of 118 affordable units, 89 more than we had before, while maintaining the 29 units that are at 50% in development. You're going to have units at 30%, 60%, and 80% of AMI. They're going to be partnering with HTG to make this happen. HTG's already received a sale loan. They've been approved for a sale loan to move this project forward. And what it's going to provide us with now is a longer affordability period with an additional 30 years. THESE ARE ALL GOOD THINGS FOR THE CITY. THE FEDERAL INVESTMENT AND THE PUBLIC BENEFIT WILL ALLOW US TO POTENTIALLY RESOLVE COMPLIANCE ISSUES WITH THE FEDERAL DOLLARS THAT ARE TIED TO THE PROJECT RIGHT NOW. IT'S NOT GOING TO BE AN EASY LIFT, BUT WE HAVE BEEN WORKING CLOSELY WITH HTG AND THE HOUSING AUTHORITY TO DEVELOP A PATHWAY TO REALLY MAKE SURE THAT WE FALL BACK INTO COMPLIANCE WITH THESE DOLLARS. HTGs also work closely with the Housing Authority. Well, they will also reinvest in funds into the development of this project. And on top of that, they need another $500,000 from the city, which would be home program income, to move this project forward. It's important to note that we're using program income. The money that's already tied to the project right now, because the housing authority did pay down their loan, all they owe right now back to the city is about $1.3 million, approximately $1.3 million. We're going to add another $5 million on top of that to help them get there. We're using program income so they can avoid certain federal regulations that could cost this project that could potentially increase the cost of the project. So the program income aspect of it is important. So reinvesting these dollars and using home program income. On top of that, they work closely, HPDs work closely with the housing authority for them to also have some skin in the game to invest some dollars too to move this project forward. So as we stand here right now, we have an opportunity to turn something right now that's abandoned, not being used for its intended purpose, that's really out of compliance for the city, and turn it into something that can move the city forward and provide much-needed affordable housing. Thank you.

Thank you, Ryan. I'll take public speaker cards. Ann Ralston? Withdraws? OK, thank you. Members of the board, Commissioner Biederman?

So Ryan, just to clarify, Is the Housing Authority giving the property to HTG? Are they selling it? Are they retaining ownership in some way? No, they're selling the property to HTG. And what are they doing with the proceeds from it?

So they are going to reinvest $2 million of those proceeds back into the project. The team is here from HTG and the Housing Authority. They could give you some more information about that deal. But from their purchase sale agreement, they are reinvesting some of those dollars back into the project. As a loan? As a loan, yes, sir. Okay. As a loan. Ours is a loan, too. So our money will always be a loan because of the federal mandates, but they're reinvesting it back as a loan as well.

Okay.

Yeah, Rodrigo, can you clarify?

Hello, good afternoon. Thanks for considering this item. I just wanted to explain, yes, the housing authority, the... This is Rodrigo Paredes, Housing Trust Group. So the Housing Authority's land price was $2 million, and they're putting that $2 million back as a loan. So they're not really making money right now, but they're partners of the development. So they're going to get some income during the development, like the pro forma, the 30-year pro forma, they get some income out of that. And we are also investing money, and the state is investing money, and the county is investing money, and the federal government is. It's kind of university. Like, everybody's investing money. It took a village to do this as well. And, you know, we're glad to be able to get everybody out of the problem of noncompliance.

And provide more housing, get affordable housing. Provide much more housing. Thank you.

Is that elderly development next? No, it's family. It's family. Youth out of foster care is part of the special needs.

Just to add to Rodrigo's point on the $2 million purchase price, we're also helping to take on a portion of the outstanding loan balance per our purchase and sale agreement to pay that down. So just an added benefit.

And what about the dispute with the city and the housing authority on some of the past due dollars?

What was that?

No, to my staff.

Can you repeat the question, please, Mayor?

And in the past, I was made aware that there was a dispute between dollars owed to the city with the previous loan and the housing authority. Is part of this going to be an action where that either gets repaid or it's being waived, just to clarify?

Part of this is the actual – yes, you're right. There was a dispute a while back about what was really owed. After some extensive digging and research, we've identified the actual amount that was loaned to the housing authority, what they paid off, what the city actually owed them to in maintenance fees. We deducted that. We deducted what they paid off, and the actual amount owed to the city is approximately $1.3 million. That's the actual amount. Commissioner Shuham?

Just a quick question, Ryan. On the original 29 units and the amount of time that they had to stay at 50%, was that now being extended?

Original agreements were for 20 years each. That funding required them to maintain housing for 50% or below for 20 years. Right. When the building became abandoned, the time clock on that stops.

And how many years were we into it at that point?

We were into it for approximately 12 years. Okay. Right? So we still technically, as per HUD, have eight years left to go on that. What we're going to have to do here to move this forward, and this is where this is a very complicated deal. This is not going to be something easy, because we're going to have to make sure we cross our T's and dot our I's to make sure we meet every federal mandate. We're going to have to remove the existing Laura. put on the new law once they go to construction closing to add the additional 30 years. So we're stopping it at this point, and then we're going to add another 30 years. Not compounded, but 30 more years based on ATG.

So you're going to end up with 42 years?

No, only 30. Only 30, yes.

So at the end of the only 30, the rest of the building will still be within their 30. So you're going to have a situation where the 50% complete their 30 12 or so years earlier. Then what happens?

No, because we're removing the existing. That's a good question. But because we're removing the existing restrictions and guidelines that are governing the current dollars right now and the actions you make today, reinvest these dollars back as program income. They come with a new set of guidelines and a new Laura for 30 years starting from the day it opens up. And that's the dance. That's where we have to be very careful, because you can do what we've been using. We've been relying on our consultants who are very good, by the way, our HUD technical consultants to advise us through this deal, because it is a very complicated process. The federal side of this is what makes this deal so tricky, because those dollars are NSP dollars, and they only have a certain, there's certain things you can only do with them. The home dollars we can work with, because you're allowed to do certain things, but the NSP dollars make it complicated. So we have to make sure that in order for them to close, that lower has to be removed. We have to remove the lower, but once you remove the lower, all those restrictions go away. HUD may frown on that, but so they have to see what we're going to do after the lower is removed to put back in some kind of restriction that protects those federal dollars. And what they're doing actually protects those federal dollars for 30 years.

Okay. It looks like HTG wants to add to that.

Just to... A clarifying, Ryan, he's not so involved in the FHFC portion of this, but during our application to FHFC for the sale funds, we actually committed to affordability and perpetuity, which means 99 years. So all of the units will be restricted, affordable at their different AMI levels for 99 years.

At the current, what we're seeing now, that 50% AMI level for 29 units?

We have a mix, right. So 29 at the 50%. For 99 years? For 99 years, yeah, right. All of the units, all of the 118 units restricted to their levels of affordability for 99 years.

OK, let's vote.

And this includes the private parcel on Federal Highway, yeah?

Yeah, we bought that parcel to make feasible this development, which is already owned by us. And it's just we have different Luras. One Lura is going to be with you guys for the 30 years. But then we bought a house, and it's for 99 years. And then we have other Luras with Broward County. Bottom line, it is going to be 99 years with different levels, which is ideal, right? You don't want to be everybody at the same level. You're going to have the 30% AMIs, the 50%, 60%, 70%.

Okay, so you have a first and a second, a motion and a second already.

All right, do we have a motion and a second? You have it recorded? All right, we do. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, item carries unanimously. Thank you all. Thank you all so much.

Yeah.

All right, well, that helps resolve a derelict building and introduce a new affordable development, so that's great. Hey, Ryan, if I could, what's the outlook on where this goes now? Obviously, they have to go through site plan approval, right? Or has that already been done?

So they've already been through site plan approval with planning. They've already gone through the actual aesthetics portion of the art design with the planning team. And I think they've already went through DRC, if I'm not mistaken, correct? Yeah.

Yeah. And then you're going to planning development board for a site plan approval?

Yeah, so they're moving along fairly quickly, because they do have that sale loan. So there's a timeline that they have to meet. That's just why it's important.

So it's go, go, go. What about demolition of the existing building?

We should be closing on construction financing for all the sources by February, March. So it's as is until then. Yeah, we really don't want to make an alteration to the building until it's actually approved by HUD. I got you. Okay.

All good, all good.

We are going through. We are getting our demolition permit now in anticipation of that.

Okay. I got you. All right. Thank you, everyone. We had two items onto our regular agenda today. There's only one item. Before we get to that, let's just go ahead and take care of items 13 and 16, which were pulled from consent. Let's go ahead with item 13. It's a resolution of the City Commission authorizing payment of attorney's fees to Greenspoon Martyr and an additional amount up to $175,000 for the fiscal year 26, bringing the total amount for that year to $275,000. Who was the requesting party? Speaker Carr, Ann Ralston, and Siobhan McLaughlin.

Thank you. I understand this is paying the lawyer Mealy for 1301 representation on us in appealing to the county. As many of the residents who have spoken quite against this, what's it called, proposal to give away public land to a private developer for what I will get zero benefit from that my tax dollars are going to be paying. Not only is that, it's insulting that I'm paying a lawyer against the wishes of most of the citizens that have spoken that my tax dollars, along with other fees, I realize it's only 35% tax dollars, pay your salaries, but it's still part of it, that we are literally I don't want to pay for this. I don't want to pay to give away public land. And this is what you're doing. And it's being rushed all the way through. Don't know why, but it all keeps coming back. So 93,000 to date, according to the attorney. I don't know when it's going to end, now that there's another lawsuit going on with it. I'm sorry, but beating a dead horse, the horse is not going to get up.

Is Siobhan still here? There she is. By the way, Siobhan, is it Siobhan McLaughlin or McLaughlin? I've known you for many years.

McLaughlin, if you're from Brooklyn.

McLaughlin. All right, so I said it right. I didn't want to, like, you know.

Some of the Boston people say it kind of funny. Siobhan McLaughlin, 1409 Rodman Street. I don't mean to disparage or... attacked Mr. Melle's very, very accomplished legal talent. But if I'm not mistaken, and he has been very, very kind. He is such a good lawyer. We have actually asked him on a couple of residential things. And he has always been generous with his time. But if I'm not mistaken, the former city attorney had said that any litigation money fees would be paid by related. So I'm not really sure why the city is on hook for Mr. Melle and his law firms attorney's fees and costs. It seems to me that, again, he is very accomplished, but he should probably be billing the Perez group related at all and not the city. And so I think you can understand why residents are not happy about paying a law firm or an accomplished attorney as Mr. Melle. against the interest of many, many citizens, and that we were told when this debacle started that Related would be paying the legal cost if something came up. So I hope you will consider that and suggest to Mr. Melle and his law firm that they go to Related first. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Shuham.

Thank you, Mayor. So as I understand it, and I'm going to ask Damaris to, the city attorney, to explain this to us, I think there's at least four buckets of attorney's fees that have been or will be spent on this project. The first, we had Mr. Zolkowicz early in the project. helping with the contract negotiations. And then I'm sure there's something I'm missing in between, but then we had the issue that I think this is part of, which was the LUPA and the appeal to the county. And then based on our conversation Monday, we have the um coordination between the existing gu zoning versus the new live local act so that's three and then of course there were engaged in litigation with an outside uh a private entity so um that my concern is that all really adds up and we're just seeing this one piece of it so roughly do we know what the total expenses have been for outside council to date on this parcel

So just so that it is clear, the initial contract negotiations were handled by Ed Dion at Neighbors Giblin. So that is the first. And also Steve Zelkowicz assisted with that. There has been, as you note, the BCPC appeal. that Mr. Mealy and his firm are handling. And we have asked for assistance in coordinating how we are going to do the hybridization for the process to bring forward to the commission the site plan and design and these things which have not been done before. So we have sought counsel from Mr. Mealy's group. All of that and the litigation that you mentioned that has been brought most recently is actually being covered by our insurance carrier. So that is not out of pocket funds from the city. So all of that, as currently we can determine, is approximately $160,000, $65,000. It certainly has not exceeded $200,000.

But now you're seeking $275,000 additional.

I am seeking authorization for that amount. We are still currently in the process of appealing the BCPC situation. And so I do not know how much that will take. And so I am asking for authority to have that money in case it does take that much to complete the appeal.

OK. So to date, you're saying you've spent $160,000 roughly. And then the pros, looking ahead, you want to have the authority to go up to that $275,000. Yes. OK. And I also recall very specifically the related group saying that they would bear legal fees. It doesn't really make me feel better that our insurance company is paying that when there was a commitment on the part of the related group. For me, I don't know about all the other stuff, but certainly any litigation, if I remember correctly, that was exactly what they were saying because part of it was based on the deed restriction. And he stood here and said, if there's any challenge to the deed restriction, we've got you. And so what's going to happen with that? Why should our insurance company pay that?

I am very happy to commit my office to looking into that, to seeing if there is a way to recoup any of the monies there. As of right now, that term is not in the contract. Though, as you note, that was something that was stated here at the commission. So we will look into seeing if there's any way to recoup any of these monies.

Excellent. Thank you. So for me personally, obviously, I did not support the idea of making this project a live local act. And I don't support spending even more attorney's fees to figure out how to make it a live local act. But I will agree with the comments of Ms. McLaughlin that I think Dennis Mellie is an excellent lawyer. And so it's nothing personal, but it's not something that I would support. So thank you.

do I also when this first came up and the city elected to select its and refer this to the carrier maybe it's obligated to because of certain insurance policies I also expected the partner to cover the legal fees but the city said once the insurance company you know is advised of a claim, then they have to or they choose to assign counsel. This way they can ensure that there is adequate representation, looking out for their own interests. So that's what I was told when I inquired myself. And so I left it at that because that's what apparently was represented in terms of what the insurance policies would expect from an insurer to refer. But nonetheless, we still have to, in my opinion, move forward with the item because that's what we've decided to do. And there's a lot of terms like giveaway and all that. There's so much hyperbole in there. They use a Joe Biden term that's so loaded and wrong and to sit here and rebut every inaccuracy is not something I'm going to do. But Certainly, this is going to generate for the city significant dollars like nothing else. And today we talked about how the city needs significant dollars. It takes a few dollars to get to that point. And in this case, there's going to be potentially additional attorney's fees that need to be invested into the ultimate result, which will yield a significant revenue stream for the city. not to repeat every line item in that. So I'll leave it to any others to make a motion.

Litigation. And that is, I would like Damaris to go back to that video. Because if there's an opportunity for our insurance company to subrogate, that should happen. I mean, we all know if your insurance company goes out of pocket, it affects your premium. And then to your other point, I mean, we heard this morning from the city manager that, you know, this is, we are not in financial urgency. These are not dire times. So I take exception to the need for this project. I just want to put that on the record. Thank you.

All right. Vice Mayor Cullery.

So just help me better understand, if we have the insurance, it's really no cost to the city. So why are we increasing the amount? Is it because our premiums are going to go up in anticipation?

That's a different situation. Greenspoon, which is the subject of this particular reso and my request for an increase, is specifically for the appeal to the county on those issues that came before the Broward County Planning Council. And the litigation was the litigation filed by Keep Public Lands Public, I believe they're called, LLC, and a resident of the city. And that is a separate matter. Greenspoon is not advising as to that, and they have no part of that litigation.

So Greenspoon is advising to the county's rebuttal? Or-

They are advising the city as to the appeal of BCPC's initial determination, which is now going before the county commission. And also, we have asked them to advise us in crafting the item that will, in the future, come before this commission regarding site plan and design approval and the concurrence between the Live Local Act

that property being a GU zoning so I definitely I definitely think that we need to revert back to the video and the comments that were made because any type of litigation costs funding I will tell you I'm in favor of the development I was the one who pushed it through and with any type of legality that has created from that it needs to be settled so I I just want to make sure that Related and their representatives hold true to what they said as well because we shouldn't be spending another penny. This is something that's going to benefit the city in the long run, and it's delayed tactics that continue, and it's costing money left, right, and center, and we should not be responsible for that because we have done our due diligence and moved it forward. So if we can just please revisit. Absolutely. Look into it and clarify that before any further movement is made. I'm not willing to approve the funding today. Okay Until I have that that Solidified as far as who's gonna be responsible for the costs Okay, Thank You Commissioner Quintana

I was wondering if, in order for me to vote yes, can we find some kind of way to amend the motion so that we can include the contingency of potentially reimbursing the city for the additional expense? So that I could vote yes.

Is there a motion on the point? There's no motion currently.

No, but go ahead and answer the question.

So can we incorporate in the motion the language that would seek to find reimbursement from the partner?

Yes, you may do that.

I don't know how to word it.

So you make a motion to approve on conditions of reimbursement from the provider.

I make a motion on conditions seeking reimbursement. I'll second your motion.

Okay, so I'll make a motion on stipulation that the provider, as said at a commission meeting, will cover the cost if it so duly represents it. Otherwise, I'm not going to approve this today.

In other words, you're approving the item subject to the city seeking reimbursement by the P3 partner. Correct.

Which was stated. Now, if it wasn't stated, then it'll have to come back to us and we'll have to think about it in a different way. But it was stated. Any legalities? All right.

So that's a motion. It's understandable. I'll second that. Okay. There's a motion and a second. Let's continue down the queue with Commissioners Biederman and Hernandez. Commissioner Biederman.

So while... understand the importance of getting reimbursed because there was a promise made I think ultimately the financial burden should be on the county because they're the ones roadblocking they are the ones that are arbitrarily changing maps so do we in this whole process I know that with the lawsuit the Plaintiff will ultimately be responsible for our legal fees if we are Successful Because that's the way the law works in Florida But I think the same thing should be true here What if we were to be successful in this whole? process with the county the county should be responsible for our legal fees because they're the ones that arbitrarily changed language in the maps and

This is currently an administrative process, and attorney's fees for success would not be available in that case.

All right, so basically our attorney's fees would be an investment in the hundreds of millions of dollars that we're going to get to help our neighborhoods, theoretically. Okay.

All right, Commissioner Hernandez.

Thank you, Mayor, and I hate to be technical, but... The mayor, if you just answer the question, just to answer all those people that don't want to vote because this is an expense and somebody said, if we get sued, we got you. Well, we haven't been sued by the county. They just made an administrative decision. And based on that administrative decision that actually replaces a legislative body decision, that we're challenging. So therefore, nobody has sued us. So if you're going by what you claim or you said that it was there, I wasn't here at the time, that the person said, if you get sued, we got you. We haven't been sued. The one time we're being sued, they're representing themselves in that process, if I understand it correctly. So there is nothing for us to be reimbursed. when it comes to this particular litigation. If I understand it correctly. Can you correct me if I'm wrong or am I down the right way?

No, thank you. This is not a litigation. This is currently an administrative process that Mr. Mealy is representing us for. Okay.

So basically we're just defending ourselves based on a decision that we didn't think was proper.

Correct. And I am happy to go back and ask.

No, no, no. Look, if anything else, I'm OK. But I'm OK with us defending ourselves when it comes to our turf and the decision that somebody made administratively that it was supposed to be done legislatively. That's what you call a workaround. You make an administrative decision, then you punt it to the legislative body, and the legislative body says, oh, they made the right decision, now we're going to table it. And therefore, when you table it without a time certain, it's basically like killing the item. So now we've got to go back and ask them, oh, by the way, we want to be heard when it comes to this item because the legislative body needs to make a decision rather than to uphold by paralysis the administrative body decision. But at the end of the day, if somebody said, if you get sued, we got you, we'll pay for the litigation, we haven't been sued. We're just defending an administrative process. I just want to make that clear. So I'm okay with voting for this because we're defending our process. That's number one. And if there is a lawsuit, which I know that there is, by an individual who feels wholeheartedly because what they think that they're doing is correct, God bless them, I'm okay with it. But that's between them two. I don't believe that we're in the midst of that. Even though we're the one who's being sued, he's being handled by the other side. Is that not correct?

We do have our own counsel in that case. We are being represented by Dan Abbott from YSAROTA. However, the co-defendant in this case is a related group, and they are taking the lead on most of the motion drafting and those things, and we are reviewing that and agreeing where it makes sense.

Okay, and at the end of the day, if we do not prevail and there's a cost to that, then we can go through what we're going through right now and say, and you said if we were sued, you'd take care of it. So we would expect for them to take care of it at that time.

I'll withdraw my motion.

Okay. All right. So was there a second?

Yeah.

All right. Okay, so I'll make a motion that we actually pay to give you up to $275,000 in order for you to have the amount of money needed in order to defend ourselves when it comes to the administrative process.

Thank you. All right, we have a motion and a second to approve the item, as is Vice Mayor Kaleri.

Can you give us an update of where this is at? Because last I heard was supposed to be heard at last Thursday's county meeting, and it was deferred again, correct? And so where are we at now?

It was brought back on the August 20th meeting, county meeting, as you state. At that time, it was kind of tabled indefinitely. I know that our city manager has been in contact with some of the people at the county to see about perhaps putting this back, for getting this heard at a time certain. And having spoken with our council, that is the recommendation at this time, that we work through those channels to get this item back onto a county agenda.

And the reason why it's going back on the county agenda is because?

Because at this point in the administrative process, the appellate body that hears our issue is the county commission.

And by the way, just to answer your question, robert's rule of orders procedurally if you table an item indefinitely that means you kill the item the item is dead it's like it never happened so that's what i mean by the workaround by the county where they actually an individual from the county said i want to do it on death indefinitely and they did that on purpose for the item to die which means that it would automatically uphold the Broward County Council's decision to change the zoning that they did administratively. So that's why it's imperative that I ask the county commission to actually hear the item and make a decision. Good, bad, or indifferent, it cannot just be thrown out without giving us a due process. Right now what they've done is eliminated our due process. to be able to defend ourselves. And so therefore, that's why I feel that we need to ask and give direction to the city manager and the city attorney to continue with the process for the item to be heard in front of the county commission and let them make the commission. They're their administrative body. They're the legislative body.

So two questions then. One being that it is now being considered live local. Does it even have to go to the county? My understanding is that's the state law. So does it have to go through the county?

No.

There are certain reasons that we feel between staff conversations and legally that it would be best to seek the approval of the maps, which is what our initial ask is here, our request. Before the BCPC was so we believe that it is in the best interest of the city to continue this matter there No, you are correct though that a live local Action does not necessarily require that this go before the county however to leave the most options open for the city and put the city in the best position to further negotiate and further determine a What is going to happen with that site and on the beach? We believe that it is best that this go back for determination before the County Commission And who makes that decision you guys that decision through the comprehensive development agreement that decision is On appeals and things like that have been delegated to the city manager through that agreement

Because this is the first I'm hearing of it. That's why I'm questioning it. I knew that it was tabled. but now I'm hearing additional information. So I'm just kind of taken back for a second that now we're going back to ask for another date for them to hear it. So I just wanna make sure I'm hearing what you're saying. So we're asking after it was indefinitely tabled, which I believe is a violation of some sort because it kills it. Now we're going back to the county and we're going to ask them to hear it in some certain timeframe. And it's all to protect the city because of why?

Because this leaves the most options open for the city to move in regards to the site and what we ultimately decide to do there.

We've made a decision, though. I don't understand that, though. We've made the decision. We agreed upon it. We took a lot of heat, but we felt it was the best decision for the city. So I'm just a little taken back as to how we're back at the county again after it was tabled indefinitely. This is just the...

We didn't table it indefinitely. They did.

That's what I'm saying. So what's to prevent them from tabling it more?

What they're doing and what I support in them doing. So I mean, I have nothing to say when it comes to this. But we have to defend ourselves. They just said, on the road for you. And I don't think that's proper. So all we're doing is defending our position in front of the county. That's all. And the insurance company is paying for it.

Do we have a date of when this will be heard?

MARTHA MINOW- We do not. We would be requesting that it be put on as an item, because it was continued indefinitely. And we have the right to have the item heard. It is my understanding from legal counsel, outside counsel, that if we don't finalize this, it's sort of in no man's land. out there. And if at some point we felt that there was a need to appeal this, we would then have nothing to appeal because it hadn't actually been decided. So there is a need for some finality, true finality, meaning a decision rendered one way or the other to preserve our right to then appeal. And as you know, there are a lot of different things at play. And when we talk about 111 residential units that were on the land use map, we believe that those 111 units are an important piece in the overall conversation. So we'd like to have a decision on that. If the decision goes against the city, then it is a decision and that there is some legal value to having that decision. So that is the finality of it. And we did try to, I have tried to reach out to some of you and have this conversation. I think I wasn't in clarification.

So here's, I guess, for the opposite side, I guess we should say. So here's where a definitive line comes in, where there's a question of the amount of money that the developer was supposed to pay this city And we've made changes or exceptions, or not even exceptions. I guess we're following state rule and law that because of the hurricane impacts that they are deferred, the name for it. But I have had several individuals comment or make a statement that out of the goodwill of the developer, they should be paying because they believe in the project and the money should come in. But then here now on the opposite side, it's not the city that's causing the problem that we should receive the money. It's the county that's causing now the delay and the lawsuits and everything that's involved in it. So I just want to put that on the record. However you guys go, listen. I did what I was supposed to do. I feel comfortable in my decision. I felt it was the right thing for the city. It's going to be at the hands of the, this is playing politics at its fullest capacity right now. I'm very, very, very disappointed. So as much as the opposite side is very disappointed in the project, we have to find that common ground. And all we're doing is two separate sides are battling against each other, and we are delaying the process. And so I do not feel that the developers should have to pay a penny, even by the say, well, out of goodwill, especially with these type of tactics, regardless of what they are, good, bad, or indifferent. Let the county come up with a date. Good luck to everybody. Hopefully it will get built and will be a benefit to the entire city, the community center, the entire thing. And if it doesn't, so be it. But you have to believe in what you do. And I really hope that at the end of the day, all of this just gets settled and we stop with the $20,000 they should be paying a month and all of this rhetoric, because it's all parties involved that are creating such chaos. Hopefully it gets approved. We move forward. And just let me know the date that the county will be there because I will be there. Thank you.

All right. We have a motion and a second to approve the item. Last word, Commissioner Quintana.

I just wanted some clarification about is it still an administrative body's decision when the planning council voted to uphold the administrative department's decision?

Mm-hmm.

So by administrative process, I refer to any process that is at the municipal or county level. It is not judicial. There's no suit in state or federal court. This is purely the administrative process. Though these planning staff at the county made the initial determination, then it went to BCPC and they made their determination, this is all still part of the administrative process. Now our appeal of the BCPC decision is at the county commission level. So that remains administrative. I see. Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner Hernandez Thank You mayor should this is maybe a rhetorical question should a county employee and a county commissioner elect be voting on this particular item since we talking about furthering the legal issues with the county and I don't mean to put you on the spot and that the answer is I don't know let everybody just a question that somebody asked me earlier on today

So far as a county employee goes, there's no specific financial gain to that county employee in voting here. It is my determination that there's no impediment.

Before you say that, it is the employee of the city commissioner who has asked the county commission to table this indefinitely which practically nullifies the item so it is their direct employee and i don't know this to be true and i've asked that person and they haven't answered me they are a not will employee of that particular commissioner so it is not Landscaping Joe Blow from down the street. It is somebody in a position of such and I don't care which way it happens I'm just wanted to put it on the record.

Okay, that's all All right, we have motion a second to approve the item all those in favor say aye aye any opposed Motion carries for three Caleri shoe hem and Quintana opposed All right. Thank you so much. Let's go ahead to citizens' comments. It's 5-10. I'll take the cards, Pat. If you're here for citizens' comments, that's Pat. She's going to stand up, and you can give her your speaker card. You're welcome to speak on any city business. Ann Ralston, followed by Michael Seltzer.

some really happy good news. I have to thank... Yes, fall out. But don't sue. Thank you to every single employee in this city, to staff, to the commission, to top ranking. We actually had parking during early voting. I drove up here ready to battled trying to find a place to park, and by God, there was parking everywhere. It was heaven, so I want to thank. Well, no, it made it much easier for the voters, which it should be. For years, I have said, please, why don't you promote the city of Hollywood with upcoming events? They actually did when you walked into the voting area, there was a thing on the Holly Trolley. So it's a start. I'm very grateful that it's a start. But you should be promoting city events, upcoming things there. And have a table of water. Be proactive. We want participation in voting. So that was wonderful, and I appreciate it. The second thing is I couldn't be happier that Ms. Hsu You are now officially my county commissioner, which I'm quite happy about. So thank you very much. Now let's get to the ugly stuff. With the planning and zoning department debacle on, now overloading. the September 8 planning and zoning with, I'm going to say, five or six issues, especially all controversial, mainly 1301 that you've just been discussing. Whether it's tabled or not doesn't matter. We're going to have a vote in November to see what happens. So I'm sorry, but everything seems to be just getting shoved down our throats, whether we want it or not. It's not misinformation. People just don't like the project. I'm sorry. People don't like the project on public land. OK? The grand old lady. And here's part of the problem with this overlay district for history. Everything I've read now when you do the myth of the house, the grand old lady, all of a sudden, well, it was deemed historical. So therefore, we can do what we want with it. Why then do the rest of us, 840 Hollywood Boulevard, 1345 Hollywood Boulevard, they had to jump through hoops for those properties because they were in an overlay district. They were not declared historic, but they're historical properties. That is unfair and not correct. So if we're not going to follow the rules or all of a sudden claim, well, it's not historic. So we could now tear it down because they let it go to hell in a handbasket, which is what they did with the grand old lady. I'm sorry. Then get rid of the historic district.

Michael Seltzer. We got to have a... I got to give you a... I got to give you a middle name, like Michael Sifo Seltzer or Canada Dry Seltzer or... Come on up, Michael.

This doesn't count for my three minutes, but years ago when I was home sick, I got a call from a man. He said, it's Bromo Seltzer. And I said, you must be kidding. He says, no, I'm your uncle from Cuba. I just got here from Cuba.

I said, what?

No, and he was actually my grandfather's brother that escaped from Cuba. Bromo Seltzer. Anyways.

This is for Pat.

You have to start his time again.

That was a family moment.

A family moment. First, thank you for the . It's one more thing that I won't be able to figure out. When I first came to the city, I came to the city hall to change utility stuff and other things. And I walked into the office after I couldn't find it. And I said, what a mess. And then I was here at a presentation, and you had some real estate company with some plans to do a new city hall. And then I said to myself, we need a new city hall, and we need to redevelop this. So I brought you who I felt was the best candidate or client to develop this property. And I brought them not only because of their worldwide talent, but something more important. They have the money. And a grand old guy from Montreal, my friend Hyde Bloom, who's a mortgage broker of the nth degree, always told me money's important. Then I saw the Grand Ole Dam that had to be redeveloped. And I heard that you wanted a five-star resort and a five-star hotel. And trust me, I know all the developers in South Florida and most of them in New York. In fact, I sold some of them properties. And I reached out to a chap who I thought, and I still think, is going to be the man capable of developing that five star property, the hotel, and the condo. And then I read, or I tried to read, a 500 page, whatever you want to call it. And I stopped at page 30 or 35, because I had better things to do with my life, like play with my grandchildren. But there's lots of things there that really disturb me. And I'm meeting with staff in the next few days to get some clarification. So I wrote this to you, and I gave you a few extra copies to give to the staff, so they should be somewhat prepared. Because what I read really disturbed me. And what disturbed me the most of all had to do with a chap named Gary Jaffe in the parking garage. And if you take the time to read it and understand it, at least the way I was told, it was pretty disgusting, in my opinion. And I have no stake in the game with Gary Jaffe. And I might not have a stake with my client. But I brought you two people that are more than qualified. And Michael Seltzer will never do anything to hurt the city because I always want its best because this is the place where I think I'm going to die. Well, we all go, right? Have a great night.

All right. Started out inspirational with Uncle Romo, but how quickly we digress. All right. Mr., is it Yaron Gabay? Yoran? Who lives on Dewey Street? Okay.

All right. All right.

Okay. Siobhan McLaughlin. McLaughlin. Tell us about it, Anne, in Boston.

ANNE COUGHLIN- You're from Brooklyn. You can go Siobhan. I first want to echo Ms. Ralston's comments and congratulations to Commissioner-elect Shuhamit. It's really a wonderful, wonderful job that you've done, and to say thank you and congratulations. I'd also like to mention that today the 19th Amendment was ratified, so it is Women's Equality Day. And I haven't heard a mention of it today yet, but I've been in and out. So we're celebrating the Women's Equality Day. I am also here to ask that you direct, ask, suggest, whichever word you would like to use, that the September 8th planning and development item that will deal with the beach overlay be moved to a different date. It is very controversial. A lot of time was placed by staff, I know, but people are concerned about it. And it is not right, correct, fair. Optics, whatever words you want to use, it should be to a separate date with a discrete agenda to discuss that item. You saw what happened at the last planning and development meeting. It was a disgrace, and people stayed after to talk about it. And I think adding 1301, which I think is number six on the PACT agenda, So I am urging you to please direct staff to change it, ask. You were also given, I believe, the instruction that Roberts rules the maker of a motion needs to approve an amendment. And I do not believe that is true. Once a motion is made and seconded, it belongs to the floor and does not need the maker's approval to change it. What you do then, if I am not mistaken, is you vote down the amendment or you do not second it. So just a process question. And then finally, some of Commissioner Hernandez's comments seem to want to socialize the loss and privatize the gain. It does not seem fair that the residents are not able to use every tool that is available to them to protest the 1301 project or other projects that they don't like. It seems to me that the administrative process, according or suggested by Commissioner Hernandez, should only be available because it would help the city as opposed to the residents. So this is going to be a fair process. The city can play dirty, talk to the people they want to, and you don't have to like it. if we're the residents. But on the other hand, if the residents want to appeal to this county commission, they want to outreach to the planning board, then they should be able to do so and see where it gets you. A lot of this could have been avoided if, as a commission and a body, you had put this to a vote of the residents. So thank you. And again, congratulations, Commissioner Shuham.

Thank you, Rebecca King. And the last speaker is Sylvia Spencer.

Good evening. So as you mentioned, my name is Rebecca King, and I am a resident of South 24th Avenue between Funston Street and Pembroke Road. I'm here tonight to respectfully ask for continued action regarding speeding, traffic, and pedestrian safety along this corridor. First, I want to sincerely thank Commissioner Hernandez for listening to my concerns and bringing the issue forward during today's Commission meeting. I also appreciate Sergeant Jonathan Fialo of the Hollywood Police Department Traffic Unit for following up with me and explaining that increased enforcement is taking place and that traffic engineering is conducting studies along the corridor. Over the past year, my family and I have witnessed three major accidents within approximately a two-block area. These accidents caused significant property damage and resulted in injuries. One incident was especially concerning. A child and parent had just entered their home when a vehicle crashed into the front of their property. The child had been outside moments earlier. Thankfully, they were inside when it happened, but the outcome could have been tragic. I also have a father who is a senior citizen who likes to take walks. And I regularly see other older residents walking along South 24th Avenue. I'm always concerned about their safety, as well as the safety of the children, pedestrians, and everyone who lives along this road. I understand that accidents happen and that the city needs traffic data and engineering studies before determining whether measures such as speed humps or other traffic calming solutions are appropriate. I'm not asking for a particular solution without proper evaluation. I am just asking for follow through. I respectfully ask the city to complete the traffic studies, consider the entire stretch from Funston Street to Pembroke Road, communicate the results to residents, and if the data supports it, move forward with permanent traffic calming measures. Increased enforcement is appreciated, but I believe we should also address the underlying safety concerns before another serious accident occurs or, God forbid, someone is seriously injured. Thank you to Commissioner Hernandez, Sergeant Fialo, the traffic unit, traffic engineering, and city staff for listening and taking these concerns seriously. I look forward to hearing about the next steps and when residents can expect them. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. King. Ms. Spencer.

Good evening, my name is Sylvia Spencer and I live in 1540 North 56th Avenue and I'm here because I'm very disappointed with the water bill. From last month to this month, you know, it's increasing with $30 with not even any knowledge. I came to the water department and, you know, they have, they said they just estimate it. Well, my income is not estimated. It is what it is. So everything counts. So it's better to be fair. And they just, I found them, I want to do whatever I have to do. And they came home and unexpectedly, two times in a matter of weeks, I found them on my property changing the mirror, working there, and blame one another. I said, they just changed like two, three weeks ago. Oh, but did you know what? He doesn't know what to do. When I came to complain to the water department, they said, oh, and computer is just one time. That's not my problem. But I don't like to have that surprise every month, you know, to be increasing, increasing, increasing in their discretion because they estimate it. Another thing is my neighbors, they did a fence, and I have to do, you know, like to protect and, you know, some improvement with the fence. And when I came to speak with someone, like the code enforcement used to come in our area, used to be able to talk with someone. Ma'am, go online. Not even let you to go in to talk with someone. So totally disrespectful. Online cannot come to your property. You need a live person to see exactly what it is. So I know you need a blueprint, you know, whatever, but I'm saying somebody to know exactly you are doing the right things according to the code. I have that house from 92, and always I follow the rules. So how come now it's no help from nowhere? Also, you know, we like, and I'm talking about in the behalf of all my neighbors because everybody's so disappointed it was going on. They said we are very neglected. Now, another thing is there used to be meetings in our area time by time. No more. How come?

You're in Hollywood Hills. No. 1540 North 56th Avenue. Yes.

Is that Playland Estates? Excuse me? Is it Playland Estates? No. No.

That's Hollywood Hills. Yeah, it's Hollywood Hills. Yeah.

Yeah. Hi. You used to go to the whole flyers, I know. But now it's not anymore. I know. So that's what I'm saying. And that will be helpful because you don't have to come just here. You know, we can make like a small time by time.

On the west side of 56. Okay. Yep.

Yep.

Well, I just like to make it short because I'm saying, you know, like I'm so disappointed with everything. You know, read the bill, just increase it in their discretion. No, you have to be the correct one.

here that can speak with you about that, but also as far as civic associations, I don't know about the district if they have it, but you can also attend Hollywood Hills Civic Association that meets on the third Wednesday of the month at David Park. And then Commissioner Gruber's, which is down the street in Leyland Estates. And when do you guys meet?

It's not Playland. It's south of Taft Street. South of Taft on the west.

He could attend. Of course, but I'd like to know when and what. So I'll tell you, Hollywood Hills is probably your closest, and they're the third Wednesday of every month at David Park at 7 p.m. We have code. We have police. We always have guest speakers. We used to, but... It's the same thing that they used to do. So come to Hollywood Hills.

Well, she was the best, but she's not anymore. I know.

So come to Hollywood Hills, and we can...

take you in we don't have closed doors and you can express your concerns and talk with individuals and get updates and we would love for you to join because like my neighbor you know usually they work they come from work late they go early in the morning and they come and they have little children at 7 p.m but they can bring the kids we have donuts no no I understand but I'm saying you know that we are just talking because we are like family so then you know I speak in behalf of everybody because and also with the Just them. City have nothing to do because they give you like, it's no light street. Month. Really? Really? One month. Okay.

If it's a street light, we can maybe.

Right. Now, another thing with the voting card. What you have to go with the voting card because they do a lot, excuse me the expression, stupid things with the voting card.

That's the supervisor of elections.

I call them and there's no solution. So I have to go for the. The Hollywood Hills and we'll try to help you. Did you know what they did? They put a name, the address, and the birthday. And everything is open. It's not even sealed envelope. Put your Social Security there. Here it is. What else? We have to be a little bit like... Commissioner Brewer?

I'm going to give you my cell phone. You're in my district, and I can spend...

I spoke with you a while ago.

Yeah?

I know. That's okay. So, yeah, I would be more than happy to have your cell phone.

Yeah, here. I NEED MORE THAN THREE MINUTES.

OKAY. THANK YOU. THANK YOU SO MUCH. APOLOGIES FOR YOUR DISAPPOINTING EXPERIENCE WITH THE DIFFERENT CITY DEPARTMENTS. COMMISSIONER GRUBER IS GOING TO HELP YOU. YES. YOU SHOULD HAVE RECEIVED BETTER CARE THAN YOU'RE DESCRIBING.

WHAT TO DO EVERY MONTH TO EXPECT INCREASING?

Unfortunately, I hate to tell you that we have hundreds of millions of dollars that need to be invested in the city's wastewater and water plants, and there's going to be a 25% increase in the water bill. I know, from November.

I got that news too.

I'm so happy to hear that, because the income is increasing like 2.8, and the inflation was 4.5. How about this year? It will be zero? It will be under.

The Playland Estate Civic Association is tomorrow night. At Oak Lake Park at 6 p.m. And I'll be there and definitely swing by. It's the neighbor, Oak Lake Park. It's between Sheridan and Sterling on the west side of 56th Avenue.

Okay.

Yeah, there's a little community center there. Definitely come by. And that is, I don't remember which Thursday of each month. It might be different this time because we're getting back from summer. But it's tomorrow night at 6 o'clock.

Because in the community, it's a lot of problems. Sometimes they don't care about the property. It's a lot of garbage. Nobody cares about it. Or it's different kind, so it pops up.

Definitely come out there tomorrow night, because we always have somebody from code, from police, from fire, and a different rep from the cities. And you can ask all kinds of questions, and you'll get more time. And I'll be there.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Pastor.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, item 16. That concludes citizen comments. Item 16 is a resolution of the city commission authorizing the appropriate city officials to accept and if awarded the fiscal year 26-27 Broward Cultural Division Arts and Culture Festival and Special Events Sponsorship Program grant. Oh, that's a mouthful. For the Hollywood Jazz Festival at Arts Park at Young Circle event in the amount of $50,000, authorizing one-to-one matching funds to be paid by the Departments of Parks and Rec.

Pat is there a speaker card was this pulled from the days I pulled it so go ahead I just have a question on the entire thing as far as the costs for the event We've already proved that we've sent it through but I want to know the additional costs for police security and so like that How is that going to be handled and who's taking the responsibility because I don't think that that was added in the total figure I Know we discussed it, but I just want to make sure

Good evening at this point. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager, City Attorney, Rick Engel, Parks and Recreation Director, Cultural Arts. It'll be covered under the $150,000. The police costs.

So there won't be any additional fees for coverage?

If there's any additional staff costs, it would be Parks and Rec staff, which would be part of our budget. There wouldn't be any additional expenses.

Thank you. Motion to approve.

Commissioner Hernandez? Thank you, Mayor. This is one of the events that I have spoken with staff about. By their own admission, I think it brought in 3,000 people, and we're looking to spend up to $150,000. Yes. The grant is $50,000. We're putting $100,000 out of pocket for an event that brings 3,000 people to downtown and don't come to eat in the downtown restaurants. I just don't think it's equitable. I'm going to vote against it. I'm not going to be later this anymore, but I just don't think that when you add a dozen pencil, as some of my colleagues would say.

I just want to add that there was discussion with the downtown stakeholders on how to integrate the Jazz Festival with downtown after the... The picnic basket idea was passed on. And so I don't know what the ultimate plan is through Rhythm Foundation and staff in terms of how they planned on executing and producing the event. I'm not looking for that detail now. Thank you, Mrs. King, for coming out. All right, so go ahead. Commissioner Gruber will tell us all about it.

Happy to hear. My understanding is that the event was kind of tweaked to have more activations downtown and incorporate a downtown stage, entertainment downtown. So it's going on not just at Arts Park, that people are immersed in the downtown area, street performers and whatnot. I remember the discussion. Yeah, yeah. So originally it was just going to be contained at Arts Park. Right. Yeah.

Is that still the direction? Why don't you give us an update if you have one? That's where I know the discussion is left off. So I'm just –

So the event will include the main acts being at Arts Park, but prior to the main acts and following the main acts, there will be a stage downtown. We're trying to incorporate like a wine tasting with some of the downtown businesses, and there will be street artists performing both on Hollywood Boulevard and Harrison Street to try to attract people to the businesses as well.