City Council - Regular Meeting

Well, good evening, everyone. If I could get you to take your seats, we'll get started. Well, good evening and welcome. I'd like to call the Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026, City of Homestead, Florida, special call meeting to order. It's now 5.02 p.m. Madam Clerk, if we could call the roll, please.

Member Cannavale?

Here.

Councilman Fletcher?

Here.

Councilwoman Avila? Here. Councilman Roth? Here. Councilwoman Konski? Here. Vice Mayor Bailey? Mayor Lawson?

Here. All right. Our next order of business is tab one. Mr. Furrow?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Tab one is a resolution of the City Council of the City of Homestead, Florida, approving the settlement of all claims made by Mariana Telles, providing for implementation, providing for an effective date.

All right. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any further questions or comments from council? I'll now open the public hearing on this matter. Is there anyone online? No one in the audience? All right. I will close the public hearing and ask for a roll call vote on tab one.

Councilman Canabal? Yes. Councilman Fletcher? Yes. Councilman Roth? Yes. Councilwoman Konski? Yes. Councilwoman Avila? Yes. Mayor Lawson?

Yes. The motion carries. And tab two, please, Mr. Perl.

To is a resolution of the City Council of the City of Homestead, Florida Authorizing the issuance and delivery of a quitclaim deed from the City of Homestead to Parker Point Community Development District and substantially the form attached there to its exhibit a acknowledging and approving a revert or provision contained therein Authorizing the city manager to execute said quitclaim deed and related documents providing for implementation providing for an effective date Thank you, sir.

Do we have a motion to approve? by Councilman Fletcher Seconded by Councilman Canabal. Are there any questions or comments from council on this item? All right, I'll open the public hearing and I'll ask if there's anyone either in the audience or online wishing to speak on this matter. Ms. Waldman. And for the record, we welcome a longtime councilwoman and also served as vice mayor, Judy Waldman, to the chambers.

Thank you so much, Mayor. And good evening, council. Mary, I didn't get to say hi to you. I just wanted to come forward just to say thank you, especially to your city manager and to Matt Pearl. for working this out. I am a registered lobbyist, just so everybody knows, with Coulter. So again, city manager, thank you so much. It was our first meeting and our first time to really work together, and it was an extreme pleasure. Thank you, and your staff. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Waldman. All right, if there is nothing further, I will close the public hearing and ask for a roll call vote.

Houseman Fletcher? Yes. Councilman Canabal? Yes. Councilman Roth? Yes. Councilwoman Konski? Yes. Councilwoman Aguilar? Yes. Mayor Lossner?

Yes.

The motion carries.

Mr. Manager, is there anything further for this special call meeting? None, Mr. Mayor. All right. Do we have a motion to adjourn? Moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. And as soon as the clerk signals that we are ready to go, we will call the... Community Redevelopment Agency meeting to order. All right, very good. Good evening, I'd like to call the City of Homestead Community Redevelopment Agency meeting to order. Today is March 3rd, 2026, and for the record, it is 5.06 p.m. We have a roll call, please, Madam Clerk.

Here.

Board Member Ross? Here. Board Member Fletcher?

Here.

Board Member Canabal?

Here.

Board Member Konski? Here. Chairman Lozner?

Here.

The motion, sorry.

All right. Mr. Beck, are there any deletions or deferrals from the CRA agenda?

No, sir, no deletions or deferrals.

All right, very good. So, President, you have a presentation on car number 4935, which is tab 1.

We do, just a brief presentation for you all. Before I go into this as a recap, last spring the CRA Board had authorized or directed the CRA to issue a 163 notice of disposal for two properties owned by the CRA fronting Southwest 4th Street between Southwest 5th and 6th Avenue. That was based on us having received inquiries from a few different entities on the potential acquisition of that property. We did issue the 163 notice. It ran for a period of six days, and there were no submittals as a result of that. In that time, and more recently, a development entity that owned several of the properties adjacent to that has since submitted an unsolicited proposal to the CRA for the potential acquisition of that. Following the process, similar to what we did on Crow Marketplace in bringing these proposals to you that we're in favor of, We wanted to have the overall presentation very high level and then have the request from the board to direct staff to proceed with a 163. So what I'd like to do, and I believe we have a representative for the applicant. that may not be here. I'm gonna go ahead and just give you the brief overview. The two properties that we have, Council, you may recall, one of these was transferred to the CRA by the city last spring before we did the 163 notice, but they are the two properties that we own combined. They're about 13,000 square feet. What has been proposed and is working through the development services process is the residential development behind those two properties, so behind lot one and two. And the request in acquiring these properties would be for the potential redevelopment of them as some type of a neighborhood park or community gathering area. It would be an amenity open and available to the public as well as one that enhances the overall development project. We've had a number of conversations with the entity in terms of what this might look like if there is something that the board proceeds to move forward with. Understanding that any future development plan would have to be approved by the CRA board. There would have to be obviously the discussions in terms of the transaction amount, the investment in the property based on the overall value of the properties and a number of other conditions. Nonetheless, it is something that, conceptually, in terms of creating a park or some public area on these properties is desirable. And so what we are bringing forward is, again, an ask to proceed with issuing another 163 notice. This is simply the mechanism for us to advertise that, yes, we are aiming to or considering selling these properties. this directive by the board. It would not be authorizing the sale. It's not approving the sale. It's not approving any type of concept. It is, though, giving us the direction to proceed with a process to fully or more appropriately accept a proposal for you all to review.

Very good. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments from the board? So this is, again, to recap, just to

start the process again to to move forward which would be more fully vetted at a later date that is correct we'll run it for uh... as is typical with the process thirty days at the end of thirty days will review this and any other proposals to bring back to the board

So there are no questions or comments we have a we have motion by board member Avila seconded by board member cannibal Yes Do we have to I specify in the 163 notice the intention for it to be acquired as for the purposes of a park and Should we make that specificity in the letter?

Sure, and what we did, I can share with you, the board in our last direction from you was to specify a public gathering area. I believe it was something to the effect of a park and that there was a requirement that it be. So the intent would be that we would use the same 163 notice that we had published last time.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, and were we clear in the last notice that that public area would be privately maintained and operated, that it's not going to be handed over as a city obligation.

We did not get into that level of specifics with it, Chairman, no.

I guess we don't have to get into the specifics, but that's what I would be looking for if, yeah, within any number of given proposals.

Okay, so...

I think we have a motion and a second to go ahead and authorize the notice. So let's, so do we, Mr. Pearl, do we need a formal vote on that?

I mean, I'll take a motion, but I think staff has their direction. We can just get a consensus.

Yeah. All right. Any objections? All right. Very good. Very good. You've got your direction.

All right. Thank you.

All right, our next item are the minutes from February 18th, 2026. Do we have a motion to approve? It's been moved by Board Member Ross, seconded by Board Member Canabal. If there are no questions or comments, all in favor? Any opposed? All right, our next item is tab three.

Thank you, Chair. This item is to approve the reallocation of funds from the residential rehabilitation grant fund program established by the CRA to the commercial enhancement grant program. When we started this budget year, we had really made some allocations and had some carryover with the understanding that we would try to have flexibility depending on the type of grants that were being requested and awarded by the board. We had an initial allocation within the commercial enhancement grant program of $100,000 for this year. While it has not all been spent, it has been allocated at this point in time. We have funds within the residential rehabilitation grant program Year to date, we've had no applicants or requests for funds, and so what we would like to ask with this is an approval to transfer some portion or all of the funds from the residential rehabilitation grant program to commercial enhancement program, or provide the ability for us to draw from that as a funding source for future commercial enhancement grants that may come forward to the board in the balance of the fiscal year.

Any questions, comments? Personally, I think our focus in the coming months needs to be on commercial. I'm fine authorizing moving it all over. If someone comes in unexpectedly, we can consider a small reallocation back. But we're almost halfway through the budget year with no inquiries at this point. So you're looking for some direction or formal?

We are looking for a formal approval to transfer funds.

So we have a motion to authorize the transfer of the entire balance for the residential enhancement fund into the commercial enhancement fund?

Second, just for the question. Do we publicly announce these dollars? Do we have any community gatherings, educational purposes to allow, at this point now the commercial side of it, to know that these funds are available for what purposes they can use it for?

Yes, we have used a variety of placements, publications that we do promote this. We've shared it throughout social. We put it on our website, the city site. We hold monthly meetings at the CRA. We share it there. We often also display this information at some of the community meetings, community events that we participate with. We've put them out there. We've also made a concerted effort to meet individually with property owners as well as many of the brokers within the downtown area, the CRA area, so they're aware that we do have programs to assist with folks. So, yes, we're making that effort.

I remember in the past we used to do programs where we put specific dates and times to create some excitement or some urgency to apply. Have we done that lately?

You know, not in the last year that I have been here, but that's a good idea. We could certainly look at doing something like that.

Yeah, I think we put some urgency on the fact that. You can qualify for potentially up to $25,000, but you've got to come in at this time and sit through the seminar and get educated on what the program's all about so that we can show them. We're trying to get you some money. Just come get it.

Money is running out. Come and get it now. Certainly, we'll be glad to do that. Limited availability.

Thank you. Council, Board Member Alvarez?

Thank you, Chair. I like that approach first. I really want to feel that we've done everything we can to expose that the funds are available and that if they're not used, they won't be available. Just making that message kind of clear to the public. And maybe also under the abatement, nuisance and abatement policy, EFFORTS WITH THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE IDENTIFYING PERHAPS SOME PROPERTY OWNERS THAT COULD USE SOME FUNDS TO FIX SOME CODE PROBLEMS. OBVIOUSLY, IF IT'S WRITTEN WITH CODE PROBLEMS, THAT WOULD NOT BE A GOOD EXAMPLE. BUT IF IT'S ONE ITEM OR TWO THAT WOULD FALL WITHIN THE ELIGIBILITY OF THE GRANTS, MAYBE WE COULD IDENTIFY THOSE AND PROFFER, MAKE SURE THEY'RE CONNECTED TO THE OPPORTUNITY. BUT I'D LIKE TO TRY THIS APPROACH FIRST BEFORE WE MOVE THE FUNDS. SO COULD WE APPROVE IT SUBJECT accepting any applications that come in?

Well, and the reason why we were bringing this forward to you now, board, is that in our process of processing applications to come forward to the board, we have to cite our funding source that needs to have adequate dollars in it. in order to bring this to you and so the ask in this case is so that when we do get the next commercial enhancement grant we'll be able to properly run it through including the funding source of funding mechanism in that application to be able to come to you with our our finance group so that was really the ask for this what perhaps we might suggest is then there could be a modification in the motion is that we approved the movement of up to the 90 up to the full amount at council's discretion but allow us to to use those funds as the source within our application process before bringing items to you yes in short you've got to have the funding approval before you go out and advertise it and do the education and bring it back to you yeah okay Okay, so then that is going to be an ask for the board to approve staff reallocating funds necessary up to the remaining balance of $96,000 in the residential rehabilitation grant program for commercial applicants that come forward. And then separately, we will work on the sort of campaign announcements, time is running out initiative.

Go ahead.

Well, I think it was kind of Board Member Ross' motion, was it? Did you? All right. Yeah. So you're good with that? You're fine? Second? All right. Very good. All right. Is there any public comment on this? No one online? All right. Let's have a roll call vote on this.

Member Fletcher? Yes. Board Member Roth? Yes. Board Member Canabal? Yes. Board Member Avila? Yes. Board Member Konski? Yes. Chairman Lozano?

Yes.

The motion carries.

Any further, Mr. Beck? No, sir, that is all. Mr. Manager? We're good. Anything for the CRA? Any public comments with respect to the CRA? Seeing none, I'll ask for a motion to adjourn. Moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Again, as soon as the clerk indicates we're ready to go, we will move into the Committee of the Whole agenda.

All right.

Very good. Thank you. Good evening. I'd like to call to order the City of Homestead Committee of the Whole meeting. Today is March 3, 2026, and it is now 5.20 p.m. A roll call, please, Madam Clerk.

Councilman Roth? Here. Councilwoman Konski? Here. Councilwoman Avila? Here. Councilman Canabal? Here. Councilman Fletcher? Here. Mayor Lawsner? Here.

Mr. Manager, do you have any additions, deletions, or deferrals? None, Mr. Mayor. Councilmember, any proposed additions, deletions, or deferrals to this agenda? All right. We will then move to the approval of the February 3rd, 2026 Committee of the Whole Minutes. been moved. Do we have a second for the minutes? Second by Councilman Fletcher. All in favor? Any opposed? Next item is discussion item number five, tab two. Mr. Manager, will you be presenting this?

Yes, actually, just preliminarily. We've been working together with the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Miami for several months. upon receipt of their formalized requests for the city to grant them the ability to use the remainder of the YMCA building. We invited them to come in today for a discussion as to the intent, the use, as well as what the expectation of council will be for the use of the remainder of the YMCA building. So tonight we'll have Mr. Alex Roig, the the leader of the team with his team. He's gonna do a quick presentation before we get into the discussion. Alex.

Good evening and welcome. If you could just up front give us your name and address for the record.

Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. Good evening, everyone. My name's Alex Rodriguez-Froyer. I'm the president of the Boys and Girls Club of Miami-Dade. Address is 2805 Southwest 32nd Avenue, Miami, Florida, 33133. Thank you all for giving me this time here today. Over the last year and a half, approximately, we've had the opportunity that came up, mostly presented, it was an idea that came up from a gentleman from the Kiwanis Club of Homestead. And he had the idea, look, there's about an empty building that's been sitting there. And Boys and Girls Clubs has been in this community and Boys in Miami community for about 80 years. Actually, we're celebrating our 80th year this year. And the thought was to take a look at it and analyze it. But before I go there, I want to give you a little bit of history about Boys and Girls Clubs. And then we just kind of walk you through. And we have a presentation. I may have something in front of you, I believe. But we kind of just worked a little bit more on it, just expand a little bit more so we can hopefully answer a few more questions. We were founded in 1946. We started in a small location between Coconut Grove and Little Havana now. AND OUR MAIN GOAL IS REALLY TO PROVIDE SUMMER PROGRAMS, YOUTH DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS THAT ADDRESS THE CRITICAL NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY. WE SERVE APPROXIMATELY 6,000 KIDS IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, SIX DIFFERENT LOCATIONS. THE CLOSEST ONE SOUTH WE HAVE IS KENDALL. WE HAVE LIBERTY CITY, NORTHWEST STATE, SOUTH BEACH AND MIAMI GARDENS. AND OF COURSE THE LITTLE HAGANA ONE THAT WE MENTIONED IN COCONUT GROVE. Our main programs really focus on workforce readiness, youth recreation, arts, homework assistance, technology, those type of things. It's programs that really help the kids in getting that tool belt. relate to items that I can think about. And I always think about tools. We all need enough tools in our tool belt to be able to work through this. And that's kind of what we like to do to provide the kids all the many tools as they possibly can to ensure their success. Let me see. I think it's this button right here. There you go, so approximately 90% of the youth that come to the boys and girls club right now are on free or reduced lunch. Our goal is always to serve the community that needs us most. And what does that mean? Is a community that is a working families that is lower social economic standards. STANDINGS. SO WE PROVIDE THOSE TYPE OF QUALITY PROGRAMS TO THAT COMMUNITY THAT NORMALLY THEY ALMOST ALWAYS CAN'T AFFORD. THAT THEY'RE ALWAYS TRYING TO FIND AN OPPORTUNITY. WE FOCUS ON SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN. SO AS SOON AS THEY'RE IN SCHOOL, THAT'S WHEN WE FOCUS ON ALL THE WAY FROM KINDERGARTEN TO HIGH SCHOOL. YES, WE DO A DEAL WITH THE HIGH SCHOOL KIDS AND THE MIDDLE SCHOOL KIDS. WHICH IS MANY TIMES A FORGOTTEN POPULATION THAT IS ALWAYS INTERESTING. BUT IN THAT PROCESS, SO ABOUT A YEAR AND A HALF AGO, TO TAKE YOU BACK TO WHERE THIS STARTED, JUST KIND OF GIVE YOU A LITTLE BIT OF A QUICK HISTORY ABOUT BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB. WHERE THIS STARTED WAS ABOUT A YEAR AND A HALF AGO. WE HAD A MEETING AT THE OLD YMCA BUILDING THERE IN HARRISFIELD. I THINK AT THE TIME WAS A PREVIOUS ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER. that walked us through the building. The parks director was there. I believe Councilman Avila was there as well. We all walked through that building. It was a little scary, not gonna lie. If you've had the opportunity to walk through the building, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, I would suggest you do it. October's a good time because it is Halloween and it's a little bit scary. But in all seriousness, I mean, so we looked at the building. We looked at the potential of the building. We looked at the pool area, all those kind of things that we were kind of talking about. So we went back and said, what is the population that we would serve there? And in that, we typically do an analysis. What's the population? What's going on there? And I think I've mentioned this when I've met with all of you at some point. I think I've mentioned that during that process, I kind of stopped it. We didn't do the full 100% of it because it was so evident that there's so much need in that area, in that community. Just to give you some examples, there's 11 schools, there's 11 schools within a 2.5 mile radius, over 8,000 students. There's four schools less than a mile away with 1,900 students, and there's a range of 73 to 81% on free lunch. I'm suspecting that these numbers that we take, that we're able to get, which are about a year old always, so I suspect that that number might even be higher. So when you look at that community, obviously can determine the need. So the proposed programs that we're talking about here, we typically operate, as I mentioned, the after school hours, 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Those are the most critical hours when kids are most likely left home alone or. Unsupervised and best case scenario, their home worst case scenario is 6 o'clock news type of thing. And that's what we try to work on. That's what we've been working on for the last 80 years in this community. So we also operate when schools closed. Whenever there's a teacher workday, spring break, winter break, summer camps, whenever school is closed, we're open. That's the idea. And we run those programs from 8 in the morning to 6 in the afternoon. And what do we provide? It's the first thing that programs are provided obviously safe. And welcoming environment child safety is top priority for us. We have safety committees that are dictated by our national office of boys and girls of America. We create what we wanted to create a learning and educational space there by creating areas for homework, assistance, literacy, tutoring. academic support we do that through a series of creating just pretty spaces and when i mean pretty i mean places that spaces that kids like you know school setting is nice but at the end of the day it's a classroom and they need a place where they feel it's their second home and that's what many kids always say boys and girls is my second home they feel a place that's welcoming that there's a nice couches there's nice areas nice rooms and great staff for them to work with Many of the programs we do, we propose in this particular maybe a music studio, dance studio, art studio, that's the art side is really to capture the arts. Again, going back to the tool belt analogy, the most tools we can provide, the most success they can have. Career exploration is an important one as you start getting into middle school and high school. That's the age when kids start to figure out, what am I going to do? One of our core programs when we get to the high school kids is to make sure they have a program moving on to the future. What does their personal program look like? The one answer we do not ever accept is, I don't know. That's probably the worst answer you can give us. You can either be going to the military, that's fine. You're going to trade school, that's fine. You're going into the workforce, that's fine. You're going to college, that's fine. You have to have a plan, and that's kind of what our programs really focus on when we start getting to the middle school, high school kids. SAT prep is important for those who are going to college. Again, career exploration, workforce readiness, interview skills, resumes, all that kind of stuff. We look for internships, opportunities to provide them. The idea is to really work with the teams and figure out what's their next step. Proposed here as well will be STEM labs. I think that's something that we've seen that's taken significant interest in the younger youth is really science and technology. So by creating a STEM lab in this facility, I think it will create a space for them to be able to do that, which includes robotics, coding, those kind of great things that we all hear about. As well as the social areas. I mean, kids, at the end of the day, just need to be kids. And that's where our informal mentoring process comes in, is providing that opportunity to them to, you know, sometimes it'd be interesting to see the stories that the kids have to deal with that are earth-shattering for them. I like a girl and she's not talking to me, what do I do? I can't talk to mom about this, I'm too embarrassed to talk about it. That's where our mentors, our staff comes in. Those are big issues for them that can, you know, make a big difference in your self-esteem and what you do. As you get, as you become older and you're like, okay, well, okay, so be it. But for the youth, that's a big deal. And those are some of the more simpler issues. I mean, issues of domestic violence and those kind of things. How do I deal with it? What do I do? I haven't told anybody. There's usually an interesting dynamic that works with the staff that we have. Another simple example that I remember, we had a girl that ran away. The first place their parents called is not the police, they called us. We're like, did you call the police? And they said, no, we called you because we figured she'd go to you guys. And it was interesting because she had not been missing the club at all. She'd been missing school. She'd been absent out of school because she was meeting up with her boyfriend during school. But she made sure that she needed to be at the club at 3 o'clock, which is kind of interesting. That's kind of the programs we're proposing to do here. WHICH TAKES ME TO THE CURRENT BUILDING. I MENTIONED IT BRIEFLY. IT'S KIND OF THE WEST SECTION OF THE BUILDING. I KNOW A GOOD PART OF THE BUILDING IS OCCUPIED BY LATER DEAN WHO'S OBVIOUSLY BEEN THERE FOR A LONG TIME IN THE COMMUNITY. HE'S DONE A GREAT JOB FOR THE DAYCARE COMMUNITY. BUT THE PROPOSED BUILDING, I GUESS IT'S THE WEST PART OF THE BUILDING. IT'S A 20,000 SQUARE FOOT BUILDING THAT'S BEEN VACANT FOR THE LAST PROBABLY FIVE YEARS OR MAYBE EVEN MORE. It's currently designed, when you look inside, it's more like a fitness center than a youth development center. It shows inside some signs of vandalism, particularly if you get a chance, really the locker room part. But it will require a significant amount of work. It will require to be brought up to code, which includes fire sprinklers, upgrading fire alarms. The HVAC system has not operated in years, and that's something that needs to be replaced. And then the outdoor pool is something that we've discussed as well, which is empty and non-functional. So here is, after we did a significant amount of research, we were able to bring, we've been to the site multiple times over the last year and a half. We brought an architect, we brought a contractor, and we said, what do we need to do to make this look like what a boys and girls club should look like?

So I'm going to go through this list here, which you have some of the details, but I'm going to give you more details.

Again, as I mentioned, we create multi-purpose spaces, adaptable classrooms that can be multi-purpose use, could be used for different programs, STEM labs, art spaces, educational, modern technology, flexible furniture. Recreational spaces we talked about, including dance studios, teen lounges are extremely important for the teen population. They need to have their own space, their own area. They don't want to mix seven-year-olds with high school kids, and the high school kids don't want to do that either. They need their own space that they can call their own. They call it, in most of our places, they call it just the club. It's not really boys and girls, but they call it the club. It makes it feel a little bit more. Anyway, infrastructure, high-speed internet, security systems, ADA accessibility, ALL THESE KIND OF UPGRADES THAT WILL BE REQUIRED TO PUT IN THE BUILDING. WHEN WE TALK ABOUT THE POOL ITSELF, WE SUGGEST ADAPTING IT TO A MORE RECREATION, LEARN AND SWIM TYPE OF PROGRAM. RIGHT NOW, I DO HAVE THE BENEFIT THAT IN MY EARLY LIFE I WAS A SWIMMER. I SWAM COMPETITIVELY. And I also lifeguarded and did learn to swim programs when I was a volunteer in my high school years. And I can't tell you that pool is, when it was designed, it was designed with the thought of competitive swimming. It's kind of too small for competitive. It's only an eight-lane pool. Typically, competition takes eight lanes. You need warm-up, warm-down lanes. So it's kind of too small for competitive, but at the same time, it's too deep for recreation. If you've been there, you know the deep end is literally three feet away. So it's not conducive to exactly the perfect learn to swim program. It's hard to teach a kid to swim if you're trying to float yourself.

Water needs to be kind of chest deep so you can actually work with kids.

So this is something that just thoughts to consider. I believe at the end, IF WE KEEP MOVING FORWARD, THAT'S A CONVERSATION THAT WE PROBABLY CREATE A COMMITTEE TO FIGURE OUT, HEY, WHAT'S THE COMMUNITY'S BEST INTEREST FOR THE POOL? WHAT IS THEIR INPUT? WHAT DO THEY REALLY WANT TO SEE HERE? AND THOSE ARE KIND OF SOME OF THE THINGS THAT I THINK GOING INTO THIS, WE LIKE TO GO INTO A PARTNERSHIP. WE LIKE TO GO INTO THE COMMUNITY AND BE PART OF THE COMMUNITY, NOT IMPOSE ANYTHING ON THE COMMUNITY. REALLY SERVICE THE COMMUNITY. WHAT DO THEY NEED? SO WITH ALL THAT SAID, WE ESTIMATE THAT THE REFURBISHMENT COST WILL BE SOMEWHERE BETWEEN $2 MILLION TO $2.5 MILLION. When we estimated all that, my job was really to go back to our board of directors and say, look, here's what we're looking at. And we did that. Our board of directors made the decision to say, listen, we believe in the need. We believe in our mission of serving those that need us most. It's clearly our mission. So they made the commitment to say, we will definitely come up with the $2.5 million needed to be invested in that facility. ON TOP OF THAT, THE ONGOING OPERATION IS ONE THING, BUT OPERATION IS ANOTHER THING. WE ESTIMATE IT'S GOING TO BE CLOSE TO ABOUT A MILLION DOLLARS TO OPERATE THAT AT FULL CAPACITY ONCE WE GET THERE ANNUALLY. AND THE BOARD, AGAIN, WE DECIDED TO MAKE THAT COMMITMENT TO DO THAT. SO IT'S ALWAYS EASY, THE ANALOGY, IT'S GREAT TO HAVE A NEW CAR, BUT YOU NEED GAS MONEY. AND SO IN THIS CASE, WE'RE DOING BOTH. WE'RE GETTING A NEW CAR AND WE'RE GETTING SOME GAS MONEY SO WE CAN DRIVE IT AROUND AND NOT LEAVE IT IN THE DRIVEWAY. Another thing I want to just bring out a few years ago, we wanted to know what our economic impact is. And at the end of the day, that's something I think that's important to the mayor, to the council, everybody here. What is our economic impact on this? So a few years ago, we hired a research firm based out of California that specializes in figuring out economic impact. Because we've done plenty of studies of how we improve kids' grades. if you're reading reading levels all that kind of good stuff that's great and passing rates and that that's to me the easy part of it of the programming side but the economic impact was interesting for every dollar invested by the way so it was 110 page report i didn't bring it with me because i figured you didn't want to read that um so i gave you a quick four point summary of this for every dollar invested it generates 18.76 of positive impact community which is about total 78 million dollars of the boys and girls clubs impact in the miami aid community In that process, they identified over 100 at-risk youth members that avoided being arrested because of the programs they were attending with Boys and Girls Clubs, which is about a $5.5 million savings annually. We had zero teen pregnancy. Statistics show that based on the teen population we served, we should have had, I don't remember the exact number right now, but it was somewhere in the teens of youth being pregnant. Obviously, when pregnant, there's a savings to that in the community. it also provides different opportunities. Once you have a baby and you're a teen, your life changes significantly. So there was a savings in that. And also, 56% of club parents were able to maintain employment because they had a safe place to leave their kids in the after school settings and the teacher work days or summertime setting, which is about a $55 million impact to that. So with all that said, I'M GOING TO GIVE YOU KIND OF A SUMMARY BY NUMBERS THAT WE CALL IT. THE PROPOSED PROJECT HERE WOULD SERVE AT OVER 300 YOUTH AGES 5 TO 18. PROVIDE FULL DAY PROGRAMS DURING TEACHER WORK DAYS, SPRING BREAK, WINTER BREAK, AND SUMMER AGAIN TO OVER 300 YOUTH. IT'S A CONSERVATIVE NUMBER BASED ON WHAT WE SAW IN SQUARE FOOTAGE. THERE'S OBVIOUSLY A POTENTIAL FOR MORE, BUT I DIDN'T WANT TO COME HERE AND PROMISE SOMETHING THAT WE DEFINITELY CANNOT DELIVER. When you add up those hours of, it's about 450,000 hours, impact hours that we call them, over 50,000 hours of literacy instruction, over 200,000 hours of mentoring, approximately 54,000 snacks, which we provide every day, and those long days, the full days, WE PROVIDE LUNCHES TO ALL THE KIDS, WHICH WOULD BE APPROXIMATELY 18,000 LUNCHES. THE INVESTMENT TO THE COMMUNITY FROM OUR SIDE WOULD BE ABOUT $2 TO $2.5 MILLION RENOVATING THE SPACE AND THE POOL. AND ABOUT AN OPERATING BUDGET OF $1 MILLION THAT WOULD BE PART OF THAT. We mentioned in long and many conversations with the city manager, he mentioned the fact that we give priority to for employment to folks that live in homestead. And I said, yes, of course, that is always our priority.

We want to be very local.

We want to be very part of the community. We don't want to we want to integrate it to the community. We don't want to stand out in that sense. And we estimate the economic impact could be close to about $15 million into the Homestead community. We've had a significant amount of support when we've talked to folks about this project. Outside of this, I know in your packet there's some attached letters. We are the official youth charity of NASCAR nationally, which created an incredible partnership here locally. We're talking about exposing kids to potential jobs. It's not about the 40 race car drivers that come for the NASCAR race. It's about everybody else behind it. It's the engineers, the mechanics, the social media folks that work through this, the marketing, all that kind of stuff. With that partnership, we expose kids to all these things. We also receive a lot of support from FPL, who has been our supporter for a long time. And of course, Baptist Hospital is really integrated into the work we do and helps us tremendously with a lot of different things. And also, I want to mention there's a couple of people in the room that came all the way from from Brickle and Northern Park, which are two really outstanding board members that have been part of this. And I want to mention, you know, Raul Marmo and and Alfie Meza, which are two board members that said we want to be there to support this presentation and whatnot. So they're showing that we have obviously the full board support behind us. And then in the next shot, this is some renderings of a club that we're currently working on. Um, which would be kind of very similar concept. So I figured these are the, these are very appropriate. You can kind of see there's a, a stem lab, uh, obviously the, the dance, um, rooms. You see game room if you know anything about boys and girls, one of our hanging carrots that we can always helps get the kids in the door is the game room with, uh. Fun stuff, you know, you gotta you gotta have some fun, you gotta have some real fun and that's what it's all about. Of course, you send classroom space in the bottom. And then on the next one, there's a stem lab and then the pool that we talked about.

So I kind of, you know, they just kind of give it a concept of what we're proposing to do.

how we're proposing to do it and how we're proposing to fund it. Again, we've been in Miami-Dade community for 80 years and serving in six different locations. We want to be partners. We don't look for short-term stuff. We look for places that we can make significant impact over the long term. Because short-term, I believe, creates kind of false hope in a community. You're there, you're gone, and what happens then? Everybody's like, here's another one. So that's not us. And basically, we're excited to talk about this and continue talking about it. And I know we've had some conversations. I know I've met with each one of you here at one point. I think we did it over the phone because you were under the weather. But it's a great opportunity that we're excited about, and our whole team is excited to be behind it. With that, I thank you for your time, and I'm not sure what the next step is. Is it questions or answers?

Yeah, let me have you stay there, and I will open it up for discussion from among the council members. So who would like to kick off the conversation?

Go ahead.

Thank you. Thank you very much for being here and bringing the opportunity for our consideration, and It's been quite a while, so seeing it come to the point of presentation and question and answer, it's an opportunity that I appreciate a lot because of my involvement with the Kiwanis Club specifically and hearing all the good things, but it's not without recognizing that It's going to take collaboration. It's going to take an agreement that makes sense for the city. We're talking about major renovations that the Boys and Girls Club wants to bring to the building, but it's going to be in lieu of any lease payments, which we currently enjoy with Le Jardin. So it has to make sense. And so I think if we're able to get to the next step of organizing or negotiating an agreement, we really need to make sure that we're using the building at its full capacity. So with that said, your services are going to be from 2 to 7 p.m. How can we utilize the building during the day, or what is the plan for the building usage from, let's say, 9 to 2 p.m.?

Sure, that's a great question because that's a question that often comes up with some of our buildings. What do we do? When you're trying to maximize an asset, which is a building, what are you doing at that time? And that's where we want to see within the community what opportunities there are. Obviously, the easy ones are, hey, there needs to be a meeting place or whatnot. That's the easy ones. That's a one-off kind of thing. But when you're talking about a consistent, there's definitely opportunities to explore with the community. and obviously with everyone in this room, is what other opportunities can we use the room for? When we're building something, it's not exclusive for us to use. I mean, we definitely want to share it and do that. We have a similar agreement with the City of Miami Beach, where we built a building. We've been there since the 1980s, but about 10 years ago, we built a new facility, because it was a really old facility. We raised money, built the building, similar concept. But at the same time, the city has access to usability for programming that they may do during the day that they need spaces for or whatnot. So we're definitely open to explore that possibility and see how we can actually maximize the use of the space.

That's good to hear. So you're not foreclosing the opportunity to have access to utilize it, make it available for external entities, including the city and perhaps others that could participate in an agreeable. Okay, great. Absolutely. Yes. With regards to club dues and any subsidies. Our last experience with the prior tenant, we found that their facility or their program was needing to be heavily subsidized by other facilities that they had around the county. Assuming that that might continue in terms of mirroring the payment and collection, et cetera, how do you expect that to affect your overall maintenance and operating for the facility?

Sure. No, I mean, it's a very good question as well. You know, you burn once, shame on, you know, burn twice, shame on you kind of thing, right? I get that. The concept is two different, similar population serving, but different models. And why do I say that is we don't rely on the dues collected at the facility to make things work. In this case, and I didn't touch on that, so I'm glad you brought that up, our proposed model includes that they pay $40 for the month. And the only reason we do that is so the families have a sense of ownership. If they can't pay, we never return a kid for the inability to pay. So we're talking about we're not collecting dues, which I know happened before. It's insignificant for us. So if you're looking at 300 kids collecting $40 a month, what is that, $1,200? Not that much. So when you're looking at that, that's not the model. Our model traditionally has been we have a board of directors, we have a staff, we have a team that goes out there every single day and raise the money needed to make these things happen. So it's not relying on the community we're serving. We don't rely on the community we're serving to be able to afford to provide the services. We rely on ourselves, and that's what we've been doing for eight years. This is the difference between that model. I would expect... THAT THE CITY WOULD HAVE SOME KIND OF PROTOCOL COMING INTO PLACE IN HERE SO IT DOESN'T HAPPEN WHERE YOU HAVE DEFERRED MAINTENANCE THAT GOES ON FOR YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS AND THEN IT'S BECOME A CRISIS. I WOULD EXPECT THAT THERE'S A PROTOCOL THAT FACILITIES GET INSPECTED MULTIPLE TIMES A YEAR WHENEVER THEY WANT. THAT'S SIMILAR TO WHAT WE HAVE IN OTHER PLACES. where they come in there whenever they want and say, listen, this doesn't look good or that doesn't look good. In our case, we have some facilities with the county parks, and they come in on a regular basis and say, look, this looks fine. That doesn't look fine. Can we adjust this so that it doesn't get to a moment where, like, okay, the whole building is falling apart, and they're like, hey, we don't have the money to fix it. So that's kind of to hopefully help answer your question.

Yeah, and in fact that's actually what I recall happened with the last tenant is that just deferred maintenance over time and then they did come to us asking for our investment in fixing what should have been their responsibility. So is it your proposal that you would be, that the Boys and Girls Club would be covering ONGOING MAINTENANCE AND RENOVATION NEEDS THROUGHOUT THE LEASE.

YES, ABSOLUTELY. IT'S EXPECTATION. IT'S KIND OF PART OF OUR MODELS. WE HAVE ALL OF OUR OTHER FACILITIES THAT WE HAVE JOINT VENTURES WITH. OKAY.

THANK YOU. YOU MENTIONED 300 YOUTH BEING SERVED. IS THAT YOUR EXPECTATION, 300 FOR THE YEAR OR THE FACILITY CAN HOST 300 STUDENTS AT A TIME? HOW DO YOU BREAK THAT DOWN?

THE BUILDING AT THIS POINT, BASED ON THE SQUARE FOOTAGE, IT COULD HOLD ABOUT 300 KIDS. WITH THAT SAID, WE'VE BEEN KNOWN TO SAY THERE'S DIFFERENT OPPORTUNITIES. CREATIVE SCHEDULING WHERE YOU HAVE SOME KIDS INSIDE, SOME KIDS OUTSIDE, DIFFERENT AREAS. SO PARTICULARLY WE SEE THAT MORE IN EFFECT IS DURING THE SUMMERTIME, THE FULL-DAY PROGRAMS, THAT THERE'S MORE OF A NEED, I NEED TO LEAVE MY KID HERE ALL DAY LONG. THERE'S NOTHING WORSE THAN A PARENT COMING INTO YOU AND SAYING, HEY, WE'RE FULL. What am I gonna do to lose my job? I gotta get to work for the whole week. So of course, that's the human element that comes in and we try to get creative on that. Kids on field trips are in today, some kids out, they're different areas. But we expect that the building capacity will be at 300. That's why we wanted to put that number there. That's something that we can actually tangibly say for sure.

Thank you. And then with regards to your external collaboration or attempts to work with the community throughout the year, do you have like annual events, fundraisers? Do you participate in, for example, we just had art in the park. Is that something that you. THAT YOUR ORGANIZATION TYPICALLY COLLABORATES WITH THE HOST CITY TO MAKE SURE YOU'RE OFFERING YOUR SERVICES OUTSIDE OF JUST YOUR LOCATION AND YOUR EFFORTS?

SURE. THERE'S DEFINITELY A LOT OF OPPORTUNITIES. WE DO THAT BACK AGAIN IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY AREA. WE DO THAT AS WELL WITH THE DIFFERENT FESTIVALS THAT WE GET ASKED TO BE PART OF, WHETHER IT'S A CHILDREN'S different things that you know we we activate different different activations um in that sense absolutely yes but again we just we want to be part of the community we don't want you to be the standout we want to be part of the community so we're just a fabric of the community that just helps the community keep moving forward it's really it's our mission Sometimes we get asked, hey, you want to go in this area? I use one as an example, Key Biscayne and whatnot, and the immediate answer is, yeah, look, not us. That's not our population. I'm sure that there's definitely some kind of need there, but that's not the mission of the boys and girls supposed to go in those kind of populations. They just go to the populations that really need it, can't afford it, need help, and we can come up with good programming for them.

Thank you. And then have you had an opportunity to discuss with the parks director regarding the usage of the gymnasium, the current existing programs that are there, the needs of the different sports activities, and how would that affect or not affect your programming?

Sure. Yeah, we have. We've talked to your parks director several times. By the way, I need to mention he's always made himself very available to have a conversation. Speaking from someone that deals with a lot of parks, departments, whether it's a county or different municipalities, you guys are very, not only you, but everybody's been very accessible. And it's a breath of fresh air when you're trying to do something well and it's like, well, just have a conversation about it. as opposed to you know let's get a meeting four or five six weeks later we're still trying to figure that out but yes we've had conversations with the parks director about the the the gym use what's currently being used how we can kind of uh integrate that be part of that have the after school program earn the early parts of it use it um yeah so that that's when you start getting into the weeds of how do you create this schedule and how do you create the what's the everyday program uh goes in there we definitely there's nothing opportunities we have the same situation at our Liberty City facility, which is a county-owned, county parks-owned facility. They actually have another program in there as well. We do some of the programming in the afternoon. So there's definitely communication between all the parties to make sure that it works well.

okay thank you and um i might have some additional questions later but i think one very important question is on this agenda we also have um consideration to extend le jardin's lease for up to 15 years which i support do you have any objection to that and do you how do you see that relationship co you know being cohesive at the building yeah look i think the two organizations based on what i've seen that they provide i haven't had a chance to meet with them

But it's complimentary. They're providing a service to the community. If you think about it, if you have a three-year-old and a nine-year-old, and after school you have to go pick up the three-year-old in one location, the nine-year-old in another location, where you have where you can actually pick up all your kids and everybody's in the same location, same facility. I think it just makes sense. It's like, you know, we go to the mall and I can, because I can get my jacket, my pants and my shoes in the same vicinity. This is the same concept that we can provide more wraparound services and working with them and trying to figure out how we can complement each other. It actually makes complete sense. You know, many times, even in some of our locations where we don't have, we don't do the zero to five population or any of that. We get asked that question, can you guys bring a zero to five in certain areas we haven't been able to, but here's an opportunity that already exists and we will be coming in and hopefully complementing the work they do. And I look forward to if we continue to have a conversation with them and see how we can kind of work together, really serve the community well.

Thank you for that. I think when I look at a city, and for my colleagues, really trying to build our identity, we have a hospital, we have our police department, we now have a Chick-fil-A and a Flanagan's to come, and we just broke ground on our regional sports performance hub. And I think what we're missing, amongst other things, of course, is a YMCA or a Boys and Girls Club. And I do feel that we have a hole in the heart of the city of what once was great community services, albeit under, I think, a laxed agreement between the city and the entity. And I think this is our opportunity to do it right again and to bring these services that I think are very, very much needed to the community. I LOOK FORWARD TO SUPPORTING THIS ITEM AND HOPEFULLY MOVING IT FORWARD FOR NEGOTIATIONS AND FURTHER CONSIDERATION, BUT I AM INTERESTED IN HEARING WHAT MY COLLEAGUES HAVE TO SAY. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. WHO WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK NEXT?

OKAY. SHE READ YOUR SCRIPT. COUNCILMAN FLETCHER?

Yes, thank you. And thank you, Alex, for coming down. And I appreciate the opportunity we had to meet, although it would be electronically. We did discuss sometime starting about this time of me going and taking a look at a couple of your other facilities. So I'm placing myself open to whatever your schedule is so we can do that here in the next few weeks if possible. Absolutely, yes. Thank you. And I think it's, I appreciate my colleagues' questions. They were all very informative. pertinent and hit right on the mark. Some of my questions have been answered. And it goes to show you that the economic situation here at Deep South Dade really does have the need for this type of programming. But I have a couple of concerns long term. With the overall reimagination of our Harris Field property that we've been talking about, how does this impact that? How does it coexist with it? Can it work? And did we look at any other particular areas in the city of Homestead where this might also benefit the community? First thing that came to my mind was the Police Athletic League gym. along with it has two very large lots to the south of it that could be used for expansion. I don't know what the impact is with the PAL right now, how many kids they actually work with. That's something we need to find out. But I think that might be a better fit for the location of the Boys and Girls Club. My opinion, again, I'm open to seeing where this goes long term and if we can come to an agreement. But I would think that we need to look at other areas within the city where this could fit as well. And that will enhance the programs we already have available to some of our kids here in Homestead. We need to address the current building because it is an eyesore, no doubt about it. Every time you walk by, there's something else that pops out. You answered my question on the funding. You're going to spend about $2.5 million. I don't know what the cost of new construction is these days, especially commercial, probably $400 or $500 a square foot. So trying to build a new facility is definitely not in your best interest, and I see that. But if there's a facility that's already existing that we could move you into and then have some areas for expansion, something to think about is all I'm asking. For that, I'll hold it this time, but happy to see if we can come to some type of agreement. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman.

Councilman Roth? Yeah, just a quick comment. I know we're not here really to negotiate and get into the meat and potatoes of this, but there are some concerns that we'll address during, I guess, some of our one-ons and our thoughts on what we should be doing with that building. As most of you know, I'm always for reaching out and helping the children in our communities and giving them a hand up to help them achieve whatever goals that they have in life or even help them realize that they can have goals in life. But I look forward to seeing what comes from this and the ingredients we put together to make it really happen for the city. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilman. Okay.

So before I go into some of my comments and questions I had, let me get some clarification from you. I think when we spoke, I think we've met a couple of times and reading through this, it wasn't my understanding that you were looking to include the gymnasium area. I was under the impression that it was just the left-hand side of the Lay-Hardeen building. Is that correct, or have you always contemplated including it? including the separate building that includes the gym.

That's a good point of clarification. When we initially talked, we weren't really talking about the whole thing. We were focused on your right on the, let's call it the West Wing, right? And the pool in that area. But just as I mentioned, when you're looking at best utilization of the property, if that gym is sitting empty at 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, and just because it's waiting for the basketball program to start, And you have kids in the community that can benefit from just playing a dodgeball game or whatnot, as opposed to when it gets, I mean, now the weather's nice, but when it gets hot, you know, it's hot outside. So as opposed to, you know, being able to use the gym in those hours, that's kind of the idea, not necessarily any organized program, but it's part of the after-school program here. And that's when we, in our experience, just typically work with the Parks Department and say, what are the hours that you think we can use them? We do a similar thing in South Beach. There's a pool next to us. Obviously, it's always open to the public. But there's times that we talk to them, when can we use a particular, during the summer, when can we take the case? So we work with them, and there's certain hours we can take it. Same concept here.

Right. Okay. And my second, I think, final clarification was there was some inquiry made about when your space has its downtime, allowing... either the city or other users to come in. Do you have that model anywhere else? Is that something you've ever done at any of your other facilities?

Yes, yes. We have a couple of examples of that. I think I kind of touched on it a little bit at our Liberty City facility. The county has parks. They have their programs. We have our program. We coexist. So then there's times during the day when they have adult programming going on, typically elderly programs that they need to play.

Typically government-sponsored or originated programming, not... Joe blows basketball academy.

Exactly. And in our case, it's been typically that, that example, if, if, if, if theoretically, right. If you were to come and say, look, we have this adult center that wants to, you know, get their people out of their place and kind of be in the art room and do an art class. That's something we can definitely obviously talk to him. It's not using a, why not? So yes, we have a similar concept in Miami Beach where the building, it's a small building, but one of the rooms is labeled, we label it as a community center and so that the city can use it or anybody, any entity, sometimes the homeowners association, they've asked, hey, can we use it for a meeting in the morning and whatnot. So yes, but other programming and the other example that comes to mind is our club on 32nd Avenue where we have a charter school on the other end of the property. And they use, for example, the gym, some of the classroom space during the day for their additional stuff. So, yes, we do have definitely experience of sitting at the table and kind of figuring out what works best for everybody. How can we maximize the use of the building?

And I appreciate that. And, you know, I think someone else already brought it up that, you know, it's very fortuitous that we have both your presentation and the Lay Hardeen proposal before us tonight, because I think we can really learn from and draw upon our experience with with Lay Hardeen. And I say that that I don't know that. you know, they take the opportunity to utilize the space with any other entity after the hours of their school programming. And if we went forward, I would be looking for some very tight policies and well-defined areas as to who can use what it can be utilized for, because then we're getting into additional wear and tear that's going to be borne by somebody. But let me address the proposal as I understand it. And again, I'll draw some analogies to Lay Hardeen. I have to analyze this through two lenses as we sit here tonight. The first is the financial. What are we doing over there? And Let me say I think it would be very disingenuous and misleading for us to grant a 30-year lease. whatever lease we do enter into, I would be looking for a lease that is terminable on one year's notice just as a current Lay-Hardeen lease is because even almost five years ago when we entered into that lease, we understood that maybe that building shouldn't be on that corner. Maybe we need a differently configured building. Maybe someday we're going to have someone who helps us re-imagine Harris Field. That day is here. So at least from my thinking, I don't want to be locked in and do anything that would suppress or delay any complete reimagining of Harris Field with the opportunity to reprogram the rodeo grounds and just rethink the whole layout, including the former Y building. So we always have to keep that in mind. But, and I understand and I don't doubt for one minute that the repairs and upgrades you'll need to do will be upwards of $2 million on 20,000 square feet because I think the comparison is, is that five years ago, Lay Hardeen did about a million dollars of capital work on almost, no, only about 15,700 square feet. So I don't question that number. But under that lease, they could rely upon amortizing that investment over the first five years. You know, they had a locked in lease for five years and then with some renewals. So my point is, is that I'm going to be looking for something that provides for a fair amortization of your capital investment and a return to the city as well. So I guess that's kind of a nice way of saying I cannot support the dollar a year or $10 a year proposal that's in front of us. And I'd be happy to share details of my numbers later with anybody who would like to see them. But extrapolating Lay Hardeen's numbers and your amortization over more square feet, your rent, all things being equal, should be about $180,000 a year starting out if we're going to make it apples to apples between Lay-Hardeen and you and taking into account that amortization of your capital improvement. And this is the second lens that I have to analyze anybody, any proposal that comes to the podium from here on out. under the looming specter of a major property tax overhaul in Florida. I think we can all accept the fact that it's almost a foregone conclusion. Next year, we are looking at lost revenue of about $5.8 to $5.9 million. And before Carlos, before you say, no, no, that's not right, I'm including the business license tax of, you know, four to five hundred into the 5.4 that is potentially going to be lost based on the 2025 numbers, you know, and maxing out about eight years out because, you know, we're going to consume that at $100,000 a year probably in about eight years. So we're, from where I sit, we are not going to be in a position to grant anybody a dollar a year or $10 a year or any advantageous lease. Now certainly we're going to take into account the capital improvements, we're going to take into account those intangible, I guess, contributions to the community and youth programs, but from where I sit, I'm not in a position of doing the traditional dollar a year lease as we struggle to find more than just coins in the couch cushions as we used to talk about in prior budget years. This is, you know, this specter of tax reform is looming large. It has to loom large over every decision we make. So if we're going to go forward, I'm going to be looking for a shorter term lease. with that one year right of termination to preserve our right to reimagine Harris Field, and some number that is really reflective of the current tenant. Because I see you as very similar, just different age groups. And the good that each of you do is a little bit different, but it's the same in end result so you know my guideposts will be what we already have uh... in looking at in looking at what we can do with you i'm not opposed to this but uh... those are the details and the issues i'm going to be looking for i understand and i appreciate that if i can respectfully offer a third lens

In lieu of losing $6 million tax refund that you just mentioned, my response to you, how can the city not afford to have us there? Your programs are going to be cut short. You're going to be strapped. You need partners to help make this happen. So there's a third lens to look at. We can figure out how we can help make this happen so that the community has a real good place to go to.

Well, spoken like a true not-for-profit guy, but we're not spending that much money on the kinds of programs you have now. So it's not like we're going to be cutting those programs. But nice try.

To different ends.

But yeah, in many, many communities, a very valid and salient point. Thanks.

Thank you. Councilman Roth. Just... As I said in my first comment, we're not really negotiating here, but you put it out there, and that's one of the things that I would be looking for as well, is equal financial contributions to the city for that corner. It's good that you know that now. You can go back to your board and talk to them and begin. We'll pass this tonight and begin the negotiations and see if you can put together a program that's going to be equitable for both of us.

He needs to know what some of us are looking for.

It needs to be equitable for both of us. That's all. Thanks.

Thank you.

So, do you just need some consensus direction, Mr. Pearl? You don't need formal action, just some consensus?

Mr. Mayor, this is simply a discussion item. We are seeking direction, which direction you want us to go. Obviously, we're hearing from council and mayor. They would like us to engage for that discussion with them and come back with a deal that is mutually beneficial.

So, Council, is it fair to say that our direction is to take into account all of the comments you've heard from both sides tonight and go forward with some discussions and keep us all in the loop as to where it is? Thank you. Thank you all for coming down for Brickell, too. We appreciate you.

Thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

All right. Next item. TAB 3, THIS IS ON THE LEASE RENEWAL.

MAYOR AND COUNCIL, RECENTLY WE WERE REACHED OUT TO BY THE COMMUNITY CENTER. They currently have a five-year lease with three options to renew of one year each, which we thought was a little too short. So we had a fruitful conversation. Lehadine has been a very great tenant of the city, delivering excellent community services to our residents and the public, and come well, well recommended. We're all very, very familiar with what kind of programming that they deliver to our city residents, and we believe, based on their current requests, that merits this discussion. We are seeking counsel and mayor direction about their request to change their current lease terms instead of a one-year renewal to change it to a five-year renewal for the next three renewal cycles for a total of 15 years instead of three. Thank you. So with that, I'm asking Mr. Hadid to step up and do your presentation. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I represent the boomers. Come on down.

Eddie Varonis, and here as the CEO of Les Jardins Community Center. Address 93 44 Southwest 149th Street. I guess we're here, you know, five years went by so fast. I mean, it feels like yesterday we were here negotiating and trying to figure out what, you know, what we're going to do with Hawaii. And we were very fortunate at that time that we did hit a major grant from the Department of Health and Human Service, and we were able to create a partnership with you guys. Our model's a little different. We are a non-profit, we are federally funded, state funded, but we also run a business. And we treat our agency as a business. And serving on this council, I learned a lot. And I knew that, you know, that $1 a year lease just doesn't work for the taxpayers of this county, of this city. So I came in with a proposal that I wanted to be fair to the taxpayers, because I was on the other side. I was where you are. And we would get bombarded with questions. And so we found a way to pay our share of a fair rent in a building that we went into that needed major, major repairs. So my presentation is really, a lot of it We're getting ready to celebrate our 40th year anniversary in the city. We started with serving 20 children, 20 employees, and we're over 300 employees. In the last 10 years, we brought in over $100 million into this economy. And we've created jobs, and we've served 1,100 children and families. So our mission is, if you didn't know, it really is to move families out of poverty, but we do it addressing the needs of the children. And I applaud the Boys and the Girls Club for what you do. It's truly, that's not what we do, but it's a nice feeder pattern for our kids to transition right into your program, and they can continue growing and exceeding the expectations of what people think. that these programs do. With that said, we've also been very fortunate that in the past couple of years, we've been under an administration that we've been under attack. And one of the few programs that has survived is our program. And we were part of the big, the only program that was part of the big, beautiful bill. We were flat funded. We'll take it. We'll take it. However, our model and our funding allows us to work with the local economy because we are a business. We provide, you know, we need services, catering services. We need insurance services. We need property insurance. So it's a business model that works to support the local economy. And that's what we do. And for us, I grew up in Homestead. I came here when I was three months. This is my hometown. My family's, a lot of my family's still here. You know, it meant something to me to give something back, given the opportunities that we had as an organization. So we did. We did. And, you know, we were able to work out a contract with you guys. I know, Councilman Roth, you gave me a hard time last time, and I'm not expecting you're going to give me a hard time today, but that's okay, because we are a business. And we have to move forward. So it really started out as a presentation, but I think I need to give you an update of what we've done at the Y. It's been five years. We're on our sixth year. When you're administrative, I think we've got another year. ADMINISTRATIVE EXTENSION. BUT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ALSO REQUIRES US TO HAVE, IF THEY'RE GOING TO INVEST FEDERAL MONEY IN THE LOCAL ECONOMY AND IN PARTICULAR FACILITIES AND I THINK MOST OF YOU KNOW THIS IS THE ONLY FACILITY WE RENT. I have nine facilities. We own all the other ones. And they're paid in full because the federal government gave me the money to buy those buildings and support the buildings and the operational cost of those buildings. The why was a little different because we were leased and we had to get permission to lease it. But in order for us to invest money in the infrastructure and capital improvement money, We need a long-term lease. A long-term lease. Not a 30-year lease, but a longer than five years. Within the five years, we've already invested over a million dollars in repairs and replacing equipment. I did a little cheat sheet. I can approach and hand it to you guys so you can see it.

There you go. Give me that.

And because we do run a business, we understand also the federal regulation and the compliance issue, and we're under the federal government. And we understand it very well. And 30 years with the agency, that was the first thing that I learned, was the federal regulation on my funding that I was going to be dealing with, that I was going to be responsible for administering this money. And I learned it very well. But I also learned the loopholes. There's loopholes in every regulation, and that's where we've been able to really invest this kind of money at the former Y, at Harrisfield. We... Well, what I did is I broke down in different chunks of money that don't exceed the $200,000 investment. Because the federal government tells me up to $200,000 you can expend on repairs, and that's what I've done. However, repairs also mean we had air conditioners that we had to pay $6,000, $170,000 for ACs. But we needed to repair several, not one, or replace. So that was the strategy that I used to bring the building up to just compliance. Just compliance. We're still dealing with, right now, the fire suppression system. that we are flipping the bill, the whole bill, because that was the agreement with the manager that we would flip the bill, we would pay for it, and then we would somehow another city would pay their portion of that vacant building that's not being used. So that was $141,000 that we're paying for this fire suppression system that that building needs under code, or we will be shut down by the fire department. So we've been a great partner, and we can continue to be a good partner, but we need a secure, longer lease so I can go back and spend money on what really needs to be done, which is the capital improvement program.

Plant for the whole.

To me, I can pull in every day. My office is there, and I don't like it. I don't live like that. If you go by other buildings, you'll see them. They're landscaped. They're painted. They're signs. They're clean. I mean, yes, we serve the underprivileged kids, but the kids don't need to go to an environment that they live in every day because then they don't have no hope. So it makes a difference. We were poor. We were migrant farm workers. My mother said, we're poor, but you don't know you're poor. We're not going to be playing the poor card. No, we didn't know. So that wasn't a factor in us being where we got to meet my family. So it's a combination of a lot of things. So, with a five-year lease, and we're willing to go five-year renewal every five years, we review it, if it's still advantageous to both you and I, but if I get a three-term, five-year, I can expend the money that I need to expend on fixing that facility to bring it up to full code. That's what I'm requesting that you consider five years. We review it five years. Is that advantageous for you and advantageous for us? We move forward for another five years. You know, like I said, we own all our buildings except the Y. And they've been funded by the federal government. Because every proposal that I write and every proposal we've hit, there's been facility dollars available. And we put it in. And it's awarded. And we move forward. So, you know, this is the only building that's a sore eye for us. We really don't, our other buildings don't look like the Y. And it's a shame because it's in an intersection that's heavily trafficked that has a history. I mean, ever since I was a kid, Harrisville was the place to go. The games, football, all the sports, that was the place to go. And for it to look like that, I mean, I remember I was part of the council, and that dollar a year would just, how can you, given that you're paying a dollar a year, how could you let your building deteriorate to the level that it did? And so I looked at that building. It's going to take a lot more than the $2.5 We're almost there, and our building is still not complete. And I'm not trying to discourage you, but you need to know the reality of what has come. But again, we made that commitment, and we're still committed to the commitment that we can turn that around, and we can fix it, we can paint it, at least paint it once. Just ruse it up a little bit. I invite all of you to come and visit it. Visit it now. The Insight. We have spent over half a million dollars. on renovation inside the building, offices, the whole daycare center side had to be redone.

And come and see what we've done with that building.

And we started inside first, now we're going to start the outside. So with that said, I hope you consider our requests. And if there's... Something that needs to be there that you guys needed to make your decision easier. We're all open. We're open to it.

So you heard my comments earlier. Yes. And so, you know, buried in within your lease with the five and the three ones, I think, is that one year termination. And apparently past muster with the feds.

Yeah, no, it's not going to work. I'm at the deep end of spending money on that building. We've allocated the money that the fire suppression needs to be completed. That's ongoing. I think the alarms, fire alarms...

also needs, it's in process.

That money's already been allocated. It's already there. So let me just make something to just kind of give you a little peace of mind. Our grant cycles are five years. They're awarded for five years. We don't have to re-compete every five years. They're awarded in five year cycles. And if you're compliant, your federal reviews hit all of the spots, you get another five years. So There's programs that have been in operation for 30 years, every five years, and they get re-rewarded. That's as long as the funding is available. That's why I can tell you right now for the next five years, we're safe. We just entered our next five-year cycle. Our money's safe. I can't tell you what's going to happen after those five years. So I need to have an exit strategy as well. So we're not opposed to you putting something in there that we review it every five years, and then we can move forward for a total of 15 years. I mean, somehow or another, the attorneys I'm sure can word it somehow. and find a way to make it work for us where we can really invest the big dollars at that center to make it where it needs to be. So with that, is that enough, I think?

It's difficult from where we were five years ago because we have a real opportunity to reimagine and rebuild that entire... And that doesn't mean you... wouldn't or couldn't be there somewhere. We can agree that building should have never been put on that corner, but that's that perfect hindsight. Neither one of us did it, so we're good. It was them. Yeah, it was them.

The only thing I want to say also, too, is this ad, is that the operational cost of that building, it's a lot of money. It's with the AC system. And unfortunately for us, the person that goes in there, if it's you guys, we're going to have to work together because there needs to be a cost allocation plan on the percentage of square footage that I use, square footage of whoever else used, and has to pay their share of the operational costs. Right now, for example, the electricity, all one, not separate building has meters, all one. We pay the electricity for the whole building right now. So, and we're carrying really, the city needs to be paying their share, their fair share. Because we don't use the whole building. That building, we only use a portion of the building.

So the gym's not separately metered then?

No. We're paying the electricity. We're paying the electricity. So when we negotiate, we come to you, we're going to have to find a way to fix that, remedy that. We have a plan. We already have a plan. We presented it last time that we would pay based on square footage of the space that we occupy.

To clarify the comment on the electricity, we bill you 41%. Oh, you do bill us? Yes, we bill you 41% because that is who looked at the electrical usage. She's saying yes. The lady who controls the checkbooks. Let me apologize.

Let me apologize. But yeah, there's things that we have to cope with it.

You've got your punch list and you know what our concerns are and our staff knows what our concerns are Yes Yeah First of all, you know, I've always have supported and you may have misunderstood my

How'd you say it? What was it?

I was hard on you, right? But I was hard on you for this specific reason, right? I said, why are you only asking for three one-year terms? when I kept saying, Eddie, go big. Get the extra terms. So that's what my concern was. Now, we've stumbled across another obstacle at this point, right? If we want to do something with the building in the future, there has to be an out clause somewhere, whether it's a buyout of some sort or relocation of some sort. I mean, those details can be worked out, but I think that obviously you're an asset to this community. We're honored and we're happy that you're here because if you weren't in that location, it probably would still be vacant. You've contributed a lot of money to our city and improved that building for us. Not to mention the children that you serve. If I give the Boys and Girls Club a hard time, It's going to be on the same avenue, not because I don't like the program. I want what's best for both the city and for the entity that's going to be occupying and hopefully contributing to the quality of life for our city and our kids. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you. I feel the consensus is both sides, the city side and Mr. Bronis have heard our concerns. We have a good template. We know what the dollars are. Well, yeah, if we do something with the Boys and Girls Club, I think it needs the exit, the termination provisions certainly need to match.

Even if we don't do something with the Boys and Girls Club, the basis of the argument exists, and I think it would behoove us. And I look forward to seeing and understanding what this opportunity to renovate Harris Field is. I have been briefed, but we'll do that on the sidebar.

I don't notice anything definite. It's just the concept and the understanding that when the rodeo event moves to its new home, we have that opportunity of that additional seven acres. And we authorized the manager some time ago to get some conceptual thoughts on how to reimagine that. That's no secret.

Mayor and council, the administration is currently looking into engaging with a consultant that's going to work with us in a workshop forum to seek input from council as to what the reimagining plan has to look like. Nothing is done yet. We're only in the preliminary stage of identifying consultants that work with us. Thank you.

So I think... Is there any direction from this?

You've heard our concerns. For me, the overriding concern is balancing your need for stability versus our need to take another big step into the future to better utilize all of our city property.

So my understanding is that status quo, You still have three options to renew for one year. So you're still good? So we're not changing the terms?

We're going to reset it to five years now, starting the new five-year cycle. We don't have an issue.

The request is a five-year extension now, correct?

It's a five-year extension and then revisit five more years, but a total of 15 years you're giving us. And we can have, if we can do something where we both have a way out at every end of the five year, then that's fair. I think that's fair to you guys.

I don't know that five years is fast enough, but I'm only going to be here for less than two, so somebody else.

So the current terms of the agreement is three one year renewal cycles. What I'm hearing tonight is that come back to council because the three one year is administrative. So I would prefer to come back to council with the additional five years, if that's the will of the council, with all the bells and whistles .

Let's come back with everybody's wish list and consensus in front of us. Okay.

Good? Good.

Thank you. Thank you to your entire team that's here tonight. Anything further? Do we have a motion to adjourn? So moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Thank you all. Appreciate you being here. Meeting adjourned.